


You can tell everybody

by melonbutterfly



Series: Best (Worst) Possible Time [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Established Relationship, M/M, Medical Examination, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness, Sentinel/Guide, Sweet, Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-15
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2018-01-08 21:32:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 46,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1137607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time for Tony and Loki to take the step to move out of seclusion - and for that, they have to go through a series of tests.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Elton John's "Your Song". Tags will be added as needed.

"Okay." Tony takes a deep breath. "You ready?"

Loki raises an eyebrow and offers him his arm. "As ready as I'll be."

"Well, that makes two of us." Taking Loki's arm, Tony reaches up for a brief kiss before stepping to Loki's side. Loki waits courteously until Tony is ready before teleporting them to the front entrance of the SGC branch in New York, the one Tony picked for their testing because he's the most familiar with the staff there and has made the overall best experience with them. Yesterday he and Loki did their blood tests, sent the pertinent results over and were cleared, so now only the testing remains.

It's just before six in the morning so neither the streets nor the Center are particularly busy, but there are still some people about. They both take a moment to adjust to that – strictly speaking it's the first time they've been in public since they met, but they did move to Tony's Manhattan apartment two days ago to test how they were dealing without miles of unpopulated space around them. It had gone well, no problem at all – though Loki had needed some time to adjust to all the noise – but that was still vastly different to this, being properly in public.

There's no problem, though; Tony tightens their shields around them, feels Loki's senses settle, and then they're ready to go.

Of course people recognize them immediately. Tony is a pretty distinct figure and his face is seen often in all sorts of media, but nobody behaves inappropriately; they get looked but not stared at, nothing more, and there aren't many people about anyway. It's a pleasant side-effect of their appointment being set so early.

They walk up to the reception where Tony registers them with just his ID, Loki not having one yet. That's something they'll probably also take care of today; Loki will at least need a Sentinel ID. The receptionist smiles at them politely and professionally, logs them in and directs them to take a seat in a cornered off seating area. "On behalf of the SGC I must apologize if you have to wait a little, we have had an emergency earlier today and due to the reduced number of staff during night hours, we're a little overloaded right now. Dr. Marco, your usual doctor, Guide Stark, as per your request will be ready for the preliminary talk within the next thirty minutes, though. In the meantime, can I bring you anything? Some snacks, coffee, tea, anything else to drink?"

"Coffee would be awesome, thanks," Tony replies, sending a questioning look towards Loki who just nods. As directed they then go sit on one of the admittedly comfortable sofas, not quite pressed against each other but close.

So. Tony doesn't think the receptionist was dishonest, but he does believe that the Center is taking the opportunity to show them off a little by having them sit in the waiting area instead of a private waiting room. He's more amused than anything by it and doesn't care to make a fuss about it. Next to him, Loki looks regal as anything, all haughty prince, entirely unimpressed with anything and honestly? It sort of makes Tony want to get on his knees and make him lose his composure. Having done that more that more than once in the past week, he knows exactly what Loki looks like all flushed, sweaty and demanding, but remembering that right now isn't conductive to anything so he takes a breath and thinks about the upcoming tests instead.

And they wait. And wait. After ten minutes the receptionist still hasn't returned. A couple of people, mostly Guides, who entered the Center are waiting at the reception with confused frowns and Tony really wants his coffee, thank you very much. He does know for a fact that in the staff break room on the ground level there is a coffee machine, so he eventually decides to just go get the coffee himself and let the next SGC representative’s flustered apologies amuse him later when they realize their colleague's lapse.

"I'll go get some coffee," he tells Loki, patting him on the knee, and gets up to do just that when Loki shows no opposition to the statement.

Tony makes it about halfway across the room when there is some commotion in one of the hallways opening into the reception area – a rather big hall made of white walls and steel doors – and a disheveled figure bursts out. The guy – clearly a Sentinel, Tony can tell immediately, and just as obvious is the fact that he's disturbed somehow, that there's something _off_ about him – spots Tony and immediately changes his course, striding towards him.

Pausing, Tony puts his hands in his pocket and raises an eyebrow as the guy comes closer.

"Sweet little Guide," the Sentinel grins in a way that's more a baring of the teeth than anything. "Your Sentinel is not doing a good job at protecting you, is he?"

And he reaches out to touch Tony. With perfect calm – his heart doesn't even skip a beat – Tony watches his hand come close until it suddenly freezes in mid-air. The Sentinel frowns and tries to move it but it's suspended, kept still and in place by an invisible force and he gets more and more agitated trying to get it free.

"I don't know," Tony drawls lazily. "Looks to me like he's doing a brilliant job."

The Sentinel looks up at him and, realization dawning, then turns to look at where Loki sits, perfectly calm with his legs crossed and hands folded in his lap, halfway across the room but with his full attention on Tony and the Sentinel. His expression is deceptively placid.

A couple of people have already been watching the not-quite-confrontation between Tony and the Sentinel, but now the silence spreads until the three of them are basically the center of attention in a very drawn-out triangle.

"I would not recommend," Loki speaks up, not raising his voice at all; the only reason Tony can understand him is because of the silence in the room, barring the Sentinel's cursing who is still trying to tug his hand free. Tone deceptively silky, almost sweet, Loki finishes, "doing that again." Then he smiles and crushes the Sentinel's hand without even moving a muscle. He literally crushes it, Tony sees it crumble out of the corner of his eyes before the Sentinel shrieks and pulls his hand into his body, suddenly having no problem at all moving it, and curls protectively around it, Tony – the Guide, rather, for that's all Tony is to him – completely forgotten.

Loki says something else but Tony can't understand him over the Sentinel's screeching, and then a couple of people from the SGC are there to collect the Sentinel. "Everything okay with you?" one of them asks Tony, looking genuinely concerned which is sweet, because wow, did her people screw up just now. Even sweeter is that Tony isn't sure whether she's just concerned about him or about what Loki will do if Tony is _not_ okay.

"Yeah, yeah," Tony waves her off lazily. "Seriously though, why is he running around without an escort?" That the Sentinel is unbalanced is pretty much plain to see. If Tony had been in Loki's place he might have been a little kinder, at least not crushed the guy's hand, but Loki isn't particularly kind to other people and really, Tony doesn't care. In fact, it's sort of, well, hot. Because Tony _had_ noticed how people had noticed how long a (less figurative than Tony would like) leash Loki was giving him despite the fact that they've been bonded for less than a month, and he _had_ known what they were thinking – that their bond wasn't as deep, that Loki didn't really care about Tony, poor Stark, unbonded for so long and now mated with some guy from outer space who treats him like dirt – and, despite all efforts at uncaring, it _had_ bothered him. And of course Loki had noticed Tony noticing, and here they have a nice, very public demonstration of one, just how possessive and protective Loki is, which, ridiculous or not, among Guides raises their status to some degree, and two, just what Loki is capable of really. People will still underestimate him until there have been a couple more demonstrations like this, but this was a very good start, if you ask Tony. It's no doubt already making the rounds and everybody who was here will spread the story of how severely Loki punished some Sentinel who was trying to touch his Guide. Tony really does like that, even if it's silly and petty.

The employee who's been tasked with placating him if necessary is making some excuses about how the Sentinel got away from them, an accident, never going to happen again, sincerest apologies, and Tony waves her off. "I wasn't worried."

Every Sentinel in the room knows the truth of it; Tony's heartbeat might have elevated a little when the Sentinel approached him, but it was nowhere near as fast as it would have been had he been scared.

Another member of the clean-up crew has approached Loki and appears to be asking him the same questions as they did Tony – it's too loud now for Tony to have any hope of understanding the words being spoken at the other side of the room. The guy looks nervous even though Loki appears perfectly calm and relaxed, if focused solely on Tony. Good instincts; the next person to try to touch his Guide won't come out of it with just all the bones in their hand crushed.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" The employee who spoke to him asks, eyes wide and a little pleading like she's hoping he'll say yes and let her do it, so he'll go back to his Sentinel and everybody can breathe a little easier.

"Well," Tony starts. "We've been promised coffee but it's been over fifteen minutes by now. I was trying to get some myself. What is it with this evaluation being scheduled so early?" Six in the fucking morning; without Loki's teleportation Tony would've had to get up even earlier, so early in fact he just might have not bothered going to sleep at all. But that wouldn't have been good either, he's supposed to have his normal baseline during the evaluation and sleep-deprivation isn't that common for him, especially not since Loki came in his life. He's never slept so much as he has in the month since they bonded.

"Oh! Of course," the employee says, "I will take care of this right away, and I will find out who has been slacking."

And probably reprimand them, Tony hears her unspoken words. It sounds harsh but everyone knows how important it is to keep newly bonded pairs content and comfortable, especially the first time they're in public since bonding, which generally is for the evaluation. Also unspoken is her less than subtle herding him back to his Sentinel.

"You do that," Tony drawls and returns to Loki.

"Again, we are very sorry," the employee is saying nervously when Tony gets into hearing range. Throughout their whole conversation Loki has barely said a word, though now he's staring unblinkingly at the employee. The guy looks like he's a moment away from a nervous breakdown.

"Hey darling, coffee's on the way," Tony says.

"I know," Loki replies and without looking at him, reaches out. Taking the offered hand, Tony lets Loki pull him down next to him on the sofa gain. Just as Tony takes a seat Loki's gaze shifts from the employee, who has taken a nervous step in the opposite direction of Tony to minimize any chance of accidental touching, to his Guide. It's as clear a dismissal as any and the employee takes the hint and more or less flees.

Well-aware that everybody can and is probably trying very hard to hear anything they say, neither of them says a word. Three minutes later the employee returns with a tray containing a can of coffee and anything they might need to make it to their tastes, including two types of sugar and three kinds of milk. As soon as Tony starts to pour the first cup the smell lets him know that this isn't your cheap office coffee; this is the good, expensive kind. So the sucking up continues; he certainly approves.

He and Loki barely have enough time to fix their coffees before the employee returns. "I must apologize for Miss Bertine's failure," he says. "She encountered Sentinel Roberts on the way and was rendered unconscious by him."

Tony frowns. "Right. What's the deal with that guy?" Though of course he knows. The only Sentinels who go crazy are ones who haven't found their Guide yet – those that lose their Guide either go suicidal or catatonic. The madness is not a necessary consequences, some die by their own hand or otherwise, some wither away or go catatonic, but some also go mad.

Knowing this as well, and knowing it to be common knowledge at the very least within Guide and Sentinel circles, the employee doesn't bother to explain that part. "Sentinel Roberts managed to break away from his care facilities and was retrieved earlier this morning. He was brought here because this Center was closest to his location, but managed to escape before he could be properly secured. However, he has now been sedated and will remain so until he is safely confined once more; you need not worry that you'll meet him again."

Tony shrugs. "I'm not worried, Loki had it under control."

The employee glances at Loki. "Yes, quite."

"Should that person make another attempt at touching my Guide, he shall not live to regret it," Loki says. "And I won't refrain from touching him next time."

"...right." The employee clears his throat. "Suffice to say, the Center will endeavor to make sure that won't be necessary. In here," he opens a door for them and steps aside. "Doctor Marco will be with you in a moment."

This is a room Tony is familiar with; it's Dr. Marco's office at the Center and during every one of his mandatory tests, he came here. He doesn't know if that's the case with everyone, but the SGC has always made sure he had the same doctor when he came to the New York main Center. Tony gets along well enough with her; she's a no-nonsense woman who doesn't fuck around and doesn't treat Tony like he's anything special. As much fun as that can be, it's not something he'd want in his doctor, and he feels more or less comfortable with her.

They wait no longer than two minutes before Dr. Marco enters the office. "What a mess," are her first words to them. "I haven't seen the Center in such an uproar since a pair started mating in the entrance hall."

"By mating you mean fucking?" Tony clarifies, unnecessarily so. "Why didn't they just scoop them up and herd them somewhere more private?"

"The Sentinel was a member of the SWAT team that just cleared the bank down the street; she came in to seek meditation, her Guide is standing at the reception and bam, she's gone. So, there the Sentinel goes, in full armor and armed, and her Guide was completely incoherent, no one home there anymore, they were both a little unbalanced because they were in their mid-twenties already. The Sentinel whips out her guns and every time somebody gets too close she snarls and starts to shoot. At the floor, so she wasn't completely gone yet, but nobody was willing to risk testing that." She raises an eyebrow at Tony, who is snickering at the image. "In full view of everyone. They made it into a couple of newsfeeds before we managed to nip that in the bud."

"Pixelated, though, I hope." The mental image is funny, yes, but the thought of one of the most intimate moments between a pair splayed in some lurid newspaper for all the world to see isn't.

Marco crinkles her nose. "Not enough, if you ask me. We cleaned up and sued some people over that, they know the laws. Which brings me to the first point, do we need to sue anybody else on your behalf?"

Tony blinks. "What do you mean, anybody else? Who have you sued?"

"Your personal lawyer has been informed more comprehensively and I don't know many details, but here's what I know." Lifting her hand, Marco starts to tick off her fingers as she lists, "A couple of people, newspapers, blogs and websites for disrespectful language and disrespect to the sanctity of your bond, the USCIS, the director of some secret spy agency, and we reprimanded Thor Odinson of Asgard as representative of Odin Borison of Asgard only for lack of frame of reference to actually sue him. In correlation to that, the US government now owes you as a pair and us as the Sentinel/Guide Center a favor."

Okay. So a lot happened while Tony was out of the picture.

"You reprimanded Thor?" Loki repeats, sounding highly amused. "What for?"

"For interfering with the sanctity of total seclusion," Marco replies.

Which, wait. "Did you reprimand anybody else for that?" Because Pepper called them as well, but Marco didn't list her. Then again, she did say "several people"...

"No. Though we are suing two other people for that. I don't know the exact details, I don't have clearance, I was just told this much because I've been your primary physician for the past several years and will be your main contact during testing. Are you satisfied with that arrangement or would you like to change doctors?"

"No." Tony frowns. "Are you suing Pepper too?"

"It's my understanding that Miss Potts contacted you not once, but twice, since you went into seclusion, so yes, definitely. If you want to further discuss the legal actions being taken on by the Center on your behalf, you can talk to the lawyer employed by the Center heading your case." She raises an eyebrow and closes that line of conversation down completely by changing the topic. "Physically, how are the both of you feeling? Once again, I'm obligated to remind you that I am primarily a physician for single Guides. While I'm qualified and do have experience treating mated pairs, that is not my specialty."

That might be the case, but Tony has no intention of changing primary physicians right now, not after he's been with Marco for about ten years. He trusts her, trusts her secrecy, and respects her skills and professionalism. The thought of going to a stranger now for something as important as this doesn't appeal at all. He explained the situation to Loki who had no opinion either way, knowing neither Marco nor anybody else, and said that he trusts Tony and will follow his lead on the matter. "Yeah, no, not gonna do that. It's not like there's any point either way, what with Loki not being human anyway."

"Of course." Marco focuses on Loki, peering at him through her glasses. "This puts us in a bit of a dilemma, doesn't it? Especially since I can't establish a proper baseline with you today, so recently after bonding."

"I do not see the point in this physical examination either way," Loki returns, raising one eyebrow. "What is it for?"

Marco sits back. "Right, you have no frame of reference at all. How about I explain to you while I start the examination with Guide Stark?" She glances at Tony, who shrugs his agreement. Loki turns that over in his head for a moment before agreeing as well.

So Marco gestures them into the other room where two bundles of clothes are waiting for them; already having been through the procedure, Tony unceremoniously starts taking his clothes off until Loki makes a noise. Pausing with his shirt halfway off, Tony blinks at him. "Yes?"

Loki is frowning unhappily. "Will this test be done with you unclothed?"

"...no." Tony raises one eyebrow. "Only a suicidal person would ask a recently bonded Guide to take their clothes off in front of them. But they put me in comfortable clothes because parts of the medical exam will be done with me partially clothed, and also there are exercise bits." Tony frowns as he mulls it over. "I don't know, it's to put me at ease? I don't know. I don't take my underwear off anyway. Oh! Right, it might be because of the MRI. They do those regularly because unmated Guides are more likely to suffer from organ failure or get cancer and stuff. There can be no metal in the MRI. Though I reworked this one to work with my arc reactor and the shrapnel, so technically that's not a requirement for me anymore. It might be just standard procedure. It's no big deal. You'll see."

Tony did explain the past tests he's gone through to Loki, and his Sentinel did read up on the brochures they were sent by Kernov, but Loki truly has no frame of reference for that sort of thing. Apparently on Asgard they scan by magic, treat any issues literally magically as they appear, and people don't even take their clothes off unless maybe somebody were to spill their potion over them or something.

Loki watches with a tiny furrow in his brows as Tony puts on the scrubs provided, and as soon as Tony is dressed he's all up in his space, putting his hands all over Tony's body. Not that Tony minds, especially not since Loki takes care to distract him with his mouth, lips warm and gentle against Tony's. He leans into Loki, making sure to get his Sentinel's scent all over the blank, deliberately scentless clothes and sighs. Against him Loki gradually relaxes, slowing the the kiss down as the contact calms his instincts. Tony might not ever admit it out loud because he's something of a role model for every Guide who don't need no Sentinel for anything (except for how they do need them), but something about how protective and possessive Loki is makes him feel settled and secure. And if today is any indication, he's perfectly content having Loki fight his battles, or at least some of them. That's a potentially troubling thought he resolves to think about later.

Once Loki got his scent-marking in – and Tony delights in how comfortable he is with that by now, considering how restrained, awkward and ashamed his Sentinel had been about his needs at first – he grabs Tony's clothes and vanishes them. Tony raises one eyebrow at that but doesn't comment any further.

As they exit the room Marco is waiting for them and leads them into the examination room by her office, where she then proceeds to take Tony's data – pupil response, reflexes, heart rate, heat distribution in his body, that sort of thing. Throughout the tests when getting up isn't required Tony sits on the cot instead of the chair so that Loki can sit right next to him, unsubtly watching Marco's every move. Completely unfazed by the whole thing she doesn't let the close scrutiny make her falter; nevertheless she does talk a bit more, explaining the tests, their purpose and narrating her her every move plus giving plenty of warning before touching Tony. She also takes care to always wear rubber gloves, but that's normal, Tony is used to that.

"Very well," Marco says, clicking around on her computer as she inputs the results of the last preliminary test. Normally she'd have an assistant to do menial stuff like that but clearly nobody wanted to risk putting two strangers into a room containing a newly bonded mating pair, which pretty much forecloses an overly vigilant Sentinel. "Unsurprisingly, all your results are better, some significantly so. Your blood circulation seems to work better now, it looks like your hands and feet are warmer than usual."

"Can I see?" Tony interrupts before she can continue. He likes looking at his bodily heat distribution pictures, so sue him.

Gamely turning her monitor around so they can look at it, Marco points at the two pictures of Tony's body on there, one from nine months ago when he was last tested and the second from today, post-bonding. She's right; the colors are more evenly distributed now and yeah, his hands and feet are doing better. Tony doesn't think it's a significant change, but it's noticeable.

"What is this?" Loki asks, entirely fascinated. Once Tony explains Loki tilts his head, peering at the pictures some more. "Do you have a machine capable of such measurements?"

"Uh," Tony makes, because while yeah, Loki probably gained the impression that Tony owns all the electronics possible, he actually doesn't own this. "Not really. But I can make one."

"Please," Loki says, in that tone that means despite the choice of words, this is not a request. "I would be curious." He doesn't elaborate what exactly he's curious about, but whatever. If his Sentinel wants a heat scanner, then he's going to get one.

"From the blood results you sent me," Marco eventually continues her assessment, "I see that you're generally healthier. Your hormone levels have responded appropriately, and while the hormones responsible for bonding are still spiking, they're on the decline, meaning you're evening out. Your estimation of your being ready for assessment was perfect; you're right in the middle of the golden zone of when post-bonding assessment is deemed safe and appropriate to do. Other than that, I'd wager your response to stress is better now, your circadian rhythm has evened out and you're less prone to mood swings and depressive and or obsessive episodes, am I correct?"

"Well," Tony stalls, not entirely comfortable with this. "I guess? I mean hell, I'm still a little doozy from bonding, I don't know yet what will be normal for me. Though I really wouldn't say I respond better to stress."

"Really?" Marco tilts her head inquiringly. "Does it still take you hours to calm down after an adrenaline spiking event?"

Well. No. "Not really."

"Also, from the reports I received of the incident in the lobby, you in fact didn't respond to the stress factors present – and there were plenty – at all," she points out.

Huh.

Seeing Tony's thoughtful expression, Marco nods and continues, "The rest remains to be seen, of course. Your heart rate is better, your overall blood levels indicate you're healthier, all your reflexes have increased. I know you don't like to hear it but they used to be on the lower end of the scale pre-bonding. Now, I'd say you're in normal to upper normal range; we'll see how you do in a couple of months, once everything has evened out."

Tony nods. He isn't surprised about the results, which isn't to say he isn't glad about them, but it confronts him with how much he really needed Loki just physically speaking. As she said, he never liked acknowledging that, and post arc reactor he especially didn't like to talk about his heart, but the facts are undeniable now. At least it's all over now, he supposes, leaning a little into Loki who remains silent next to him, though he listens attentively.

"Well, then. Sentinel Loki, would you like to do these same tests now or would you rather first see the other tests?" It's really nice how she's giving him a choice about it; sure, people know to accommodate a freshly bonded Sentinel and Guide as much as possible but this isn't strictly speaking necessary.

"The other tests," Loki decides after a moment.

Marco nods and turns to Tony. "MRI or fitness test first?"

Tony grimaces. "Fitness test, I guess." Then he hops off the cot and takes his shirt off.

Loki immediately goes tense and rises as well. Even as Marco averts her eyes and turns away to busy herself getting the things necessary for the test Tony grimaces and puts a hand on Loki's thigh. "Sorry." He doesn't want to apologize for something trivial like this but that was probably a bit too fast for his Sentinel.

Huffing, Loki takes Tony's shirt and leans in to brush his mouth across his temple, one warm hand settling in the small of his back. He doesn't say anything, but he does breathe Tony's scent in and doesn't move away when Marco turns back to them and hands Tony a couple of round, stick-on electrodes. Normally she would put them on Tony but she probably, wisely figured that she'd better not touch his naked chest right now, even with gloves. "You know where to stick them?" is all she asks.

"Yep." True to his word, Tony starts attaching the electrodes to his body, mostly his chest but also his neck. Brushing his hand across Loki's he then walks over to the exercise bike at one end of the room and hops on. He can tell Loki is not exactly happy with proceedings by the way Loki hovers, so he decides to involve him a little. "Can you give me the wire?"

Without a word Loki takes the wires Marco hands him one after the other, giving quiet instructions on which electrodes to attach them to, ending with the finger stick-on thing that will measure the oxygen levels in his blood and the mask-like tube apparatus he has to use for breathing during the test. The last thing she gives Loki is the nose clamp, which Tony sticks on with a grimace.

"Alright," Marco says once all preparations have been done. "You remember how this goes? At first you won't have any problems and then slowly the resistance will increase. You have to try to always stay in the green range. If you get dizzy or start feeling anything else but okay, the test stops immediately. Alright?"

"Yep." Tony leans in to brush a kiss to Loki's cheek, then sticks the breathing tube thing in his mouth and gives Marco the thumbs up.

Okay, so he hates this test. Not because of the exercise – please, Tony has his own gym at each of his residences, he actually does exercise out of his own free will – but because it's so _boring_. He just sits there and pedals. Sure, it gets a little more challenging as time progresses but still, it's a pretty boring test overall. The only thing to distract him is the monitor Marco uses to track the data, which she, already familiar with his attention span, helpfully tilts so he can see how his heart and the rest of his body are doing. Loki remains hovering close by, though he relaxes a bit once he realizes that this is all there is to it.

Once the test is done with, Marco hands Tony one of the Center's standard vacuum plastic wrapped towels and a bottle of water before returning to her monitor to assess the data. After giving Tony a minute to relax she then sends him over to the heat scanner once more to compare post-exercise scans. As before, all of Tony's test results have improved; he processes oxygen better, his heart is calmer, less frantic, and his blood circulation system works better. All in all, Tony came out of bonding a lot better than he went in.

"Alright," Marco says once they've sufficiently discussed his data. "Time for the MRI, and then you're on lunch break."

"Phew." Tony dramatically rolls his eyes in between sips from his water bottle. Loki is hovering close again, brushing his fingertips over Tony's sweaty skin. His pupils are dark and intense and Tony is doing his best to ignore that because he does not need the distraction right now, especially just minutes before Marco will look at what's going on inside his brain. But then Loki's tongue flicks out to lick his fingertips, licking Tony's sweat off them, and just, no. Who would be able to stay calm and detached in the face of that? So Tony leans in and chases his taste into Loki's mouth, licks his tongue and makes it so Loki can _really_ taste him.

When they pull apart, Marco has left the room, the door standing open. Tony can't bring himself to feel guilty about basically chasing her out of her own exam rooms.

After another mouthful of water Tony exchanges the bottle with his shirt, and then he forgets to put it on because Loki drinks from it like a sports drink ad, head tilted back, throat one long, seductive arch as his larynx bobs with each swallow. It's just entirely unfair how hot Loki is.

Eventually, he manages to focus on business again. Tony puts the shirt back on and they go back to Marco's office, hands entwined. She doesn't comment at all even though Tony had been half-expecting at least a raised eyebrow or a telling look over the rim of her glasses, but she's all business, gets up and leads the way out of her office and down the hall to where the MRI is. A nurse is waiting for them, a young guy who smiles without showing his teeth and apart from a greeting doesn't speak at all. He isn't the one who injects Tony with the contrast agent either, which is probably for the better because Loki is at least a little familiar with Marco and will be less likely to react unreasonably to her approaching with a needle. Though whether he'll be okay with that needle piercing through Tony's skin and injecting stuff into his vein is another matter.

It's a little bit annoying, how they treat Loki a bit like a dangerous animal. Tony thinks about it while he watches Marco prepare the injection. On the one hand, yes, Loki can be very dangerous. On the other, so can a lot of other people. Besides, Loki hasn't been happy about proceedings, but he also reacts to other people's nervousness, making him more tense. If they stopped being so overly cautious Loki would relax some as well. It's dumb, but there's probably nothing to be done about it. Especially not with the incident of the hand crushing still being very fresh.

For Loki's benefit, Marco explains what the contrasting agent is for and then is very careful as she prepares Tony for the injection, swabbing the inside of his elbow with alcohol and patting the skin a little with one finger. Loki knows what she's going to do but it's still a tense moment for everyone but Tony who has to keep his arm relaxed when she pushes the needle through his skin. But, while he clearly doesn't like it and remains stiff as he keeps a close eye on proceedings, Loki doesn't jump her like a rabid zombie. If Tony had had the slightest doubt that Loki couldn't handle this, other people, he wouldn't have let them come out of seclusion yet.

Once the contrasting agent is all in, Tony has to use the toilet. When he comes back Marco is explaining to Loki in detail what it will be like with the MRI so he won't be surprised. As Loki nods, Tony hops onto the slim, padded bench that will pull him into the machine. Explanation apparently done, Marco then heads into the room next to the one containing the MRI machine while Loki walks over to Tony, carding his fingers through his hair as he leans in. "These people are nervous," he murmurs.

A laugh escapes Tony. "Newly bondend Sentinels tend to make most people nervous. And what with the hand crushing this morning, are you surprised?"

As he contemplates this, a self-satisfied expression takes over Loki's face. Oh, he isn't surprised, but he likes it. Chuckling, Tony leans in and kisses Loki, runs his fingertips across his cheek and neck. "Let's get this done with and then have lunch in my apartment, yeah?"

"Very well." Loki steps away and waits until the nurse – who on second thought is more likely to be a technician, actually – has handed Tony the headphones and made sure he lies the correct way before having the cot pull into the machine. Some people get nervous in these things and Tony gets why, they are a bit like coffins he supposes, and then with the noise that will come later, that's probably not fun for some people either, especially Sentinels. But Tony has always loved them, he doesn't know why.

"Can you hear me, Guide Stark?" Marco's voice is in his ear.

"Yeah," Tony replies. "Usual choice of music, whatever."

"You remember procedure, then. Try to move as little as possible, wait until you're pulled out but if you have an emergency, you can press the button and get pulled out immediately."

"Yeah, yeah, let's get on with this." Moments later a classic rock radio station comes through the headphones, and a little later the train tracks like noise of the MRI starts up.

Twenty minutes later Tony is pulled out and blinks his eyes open – he didn't quite fall asleep but maybe doze a little, these things are relaxing, okay – to Loki's face, lips pressed together tightly. "Hey, you okay?" Tony asks, still a little dazed, reaching out to touch Loki's belly because it's right there.

"I must admit, that was slightly unnerving," Loki says, a little tightly. That wakes Tony up completely – not that he was actually asleep, mind, he isn't a toddler who needs a nap in the middle of the day – and he sits up, leaning into his Sentinel who wraps one arm around him.

"It was very loud," Loki says after a moment, "and made it difficult to hear your heartbeat at first. Also, you smell a little strange."

"Must be the contrasting agent, I'm radioactive, literally." Tony grins at his own joke. It's amazing how Loki can actually smell something like that, it's not like they put that much of the stuff in him. "Think you can do it when it's your turn?"

"Yes," Loki decides after deliberating that. "Without the music, however. I would hear you."

"Sure, whatever you're comfortable with." Rubbing his cheek against Loki's chest, Tony spots Marco out of the corner of his eyes and turns to her. "All done?"

"All done, for now. I suggest we reconvene in two hours for Sentinel Loki's tests?"

"Yeah, sure. Your office, two hours. See you then." Tony tilts his head up to peer at his Sentinel, meaning to ask him to take them to the apartment, but Loki it seems needs no further prompting and does it all on his own, catching Tony with both hands when he's about to drop to the floor because he was still sitting when they teleported.

"Whoa," Tony exclaims, instinctively clinging to Loki. "Okay, just don't ever drop me, and don't do this in front of people."

"As you wish," Loki's eyes turn heavenwards, and then he's walking them into the bedroom.

"Hey, food's that way-" Tony starts to protest playfully, but suddenly he's horizontal and Loki is pulling his shirt up, putting his mouth to his skin and, okay, food can wait.

Food does wait until Loki is done thoroughly scent marking his Guide everywhere, and then Tony isn't really on board with moving so Loki goes to retrieve something to eat. Not overly fond of cooking or generally having the patience to stand by the oven and wait while food slowly gets done, he ends up throwing some frozen pizzas in the oven and then comes back to Tony.

"Nnn," Tony whines when Loki's tongue flicks wet and hot across his right hipbone. "Can't move."

"You are not required to yet," Loki replies, clearly very self-satisfied with himself and the situation as he slides between Tony's legs, knees pushing his thighs apart until Tony has no choice but to flop onto his back to accommodate.

"I really can't, again," Tony says, he is definitely not pouting, but seriously, twice in an hour is enough for now, right? Never mind that they've spent the past week having sex, and not even overly creative or athletic sex, no, because neither of them had the patience or wherewithal to use brainpower on things like that when they were too focused on just fucking each other's brains out. And okay, the memory of that makes Tony's resolve crumble, but he's serious, he isn't sure he can physically get it up again-

Ooh, shit, that's Loki's mouth, hot and wet around his cock and it hurts a little because he's still sensitive but somehow even that is electrifying, sets his nerves alive and then Loki hums thoughtfully like he's fucking contemplating the meaning of life with Tony's cock in his mouth and that just, that's too much. With a growl Tony pushes his hips up, and he's swelling, if slowly, Loki's mouth doing its best to coax him along. And shit, Loki is way too talented, he knows exactly how to get Tony going again, fingers digging into Tony's thigh, sure to leave bruises as if Tony didn't already have an entire new collection on his hips and liberally littering his chest.

A high noise somewhere between surprise and pleasure wrangles from his throat when Loki's finger slides between his cheeks, unerringly finding and entering his still wet hole. "L-Loki," he gasps, weakly flopping his hands until one of them finds Loki's head, tangles in his unruly hair. "Shit!" A wave of pleasure crashes through him when Loki finds his prostate and it should be weakened, not as debilitating because this is the third time in less than ninety minutes but somehow it's only all the more mind-blowing, stealing Tony's breath and wits in equal measure.

And Loki hums again, lips a tight ring just below the head of Tony's cock as his tongue swirls around him, dips into the slit at the same time as his finger rubs rhythmically across that spot in him that makes him see stars. Tony has no idea what noises are falling from his lips but they're incoherent, the only understandable word being his Sentinel's name, and he should barely even be aware of Loki's free hand caressing small circles on the inside of his thigh but it's the perfect counterpoint to the pleasure Loki wrings from his body with the expertise of someone who knows exactly what and how they should do it. Suddenly, that gentle hand flexes and Loki's fingernails are digging into his skin, not painfully except in the way that's good and somehow that is the last straw and Tony comes down Loki's throat with a hoarse shout.

After that, he _really_ isn't capable of moving again; his body feels heavy and warm, the echoes of pleasure slowly waning. It takes Tony a moment to become aware of his surroundings again and he recognizes an unmistakeable noise. When he does he opens his heavy eyes he finds himself blinking up to Loki, still kneeling between his legs and jacking himself, eyes wandering across Tony's body in a very possessive way. He's close, his expression says as much, and Tony sighs, stretches a little in a way that's entirely for show. "You gonna come on me?" he asks, voice rough. Reaching down, he slides a hand across his belly and thigh. "Mark me with your come from the outside as well?"

Clearly that's all Loki needed; with a gasp his body bows, goes stiff as he starts to come, hot spurts spilling white across Tony's skin. An expression of utter peace spreads on Loki's face and it makes Tony helpless to do anything but wrap both arms around Loki, pull him close and hold him for a while.

"Sirs," JARVIS says eventually, "My apologies, but the pizza will turn unpalatable if not removed from the oven soon."

Right. Unwilling but well-aware that they have little choice in the matter – they have to get up because they have to continue the tests; all this time with nothing to do but laze around with Loki has really made Tony lazy – Tony grumbles but rolls out of Loki's weakly grasping arms and off the bed. Under protest, Loki eventually follows him.

Forty minutes later finds them back in Marco's office, newly fed and freshly showered and Loki wearing the scrubs Tony had on earlier, nevermind that the pants are a little too short on him. Then again, it's unsure whether they actually make scrubs pants for people with freakishly long legs.

If Marco correctly identifies the afterglow written all over them, she doesn't comment on it; instead, she gives them a little speech about how for obvious reasons they can't actually compare today's test results with Loki's baseline pre-bonding, they never will. Nothing in her demeanor says that it's a shame because obviously that would be so interesting, what with Loki being an alien after all, so Tony remains relatively relaxed about the whole thing. 

"What is the purpose for testing me, then?" Loki naturally asks.

"To compare with future test results," Marco readily replies. "These results are not quite post-bonding but will provide something of a frame of reference when you're tested again in presumably three months. They will help reflect changes in your body between now and then, because while the lion's share of the changes has most likely already taken place, you both are by far not done psychologically adapting to each other, and as a consequence further physiological changes are to be expected also."

That makes sense, but Loki tilts his head and says, "What if I have no wish to be tested?"

Tony has no idea if that's a rhetorical question or not; this is the first time he's hearing of it in any case.

Marco blinks, clearly surprised. "We can't force you, obviously. If you really don't want to, you're free to leave. It might be helpful not just for assessing you in the future, but also for treating you in case it becomes necessary, not to mention that it will help us assessing you as a pair." She tilts her head, thoughtfully. "Clearly, you are not the typical Sentinel we are used to dealing with, though every Sentinel is different in their own right anyway. However, despite this all data we receive can help us and, directly or indirectly, future Sentinels, Guides and pairs. It's rare for a Guide of Guide Stark's age to even still be alive, much less sane and relatively healthy, and while we have no data on your age, Sentinel Loki, you are apparently even older. It's very possible that there is a correlation between the two and that might be very helpful for helping other comparably old yet unbonded Guides and Sentinels find their mates."

"Wait," Tony says slowly. "You're thinking that I did relatively okay for so long because Loki's older, and an alien? And because there are other Guides and Sentinels around my age doing equally well you're thinking that there are other... Sentinels and maybe even Guides like Loki around?"

"It stands to reason," Marco says calmly. "After all, if your Guide is not from this planet, something which nobody would ever have considered a possibility until it happened, it stands to reason that the same might be true for others, correct? Certainly, it would explain the rather unequal ratio between Guides and Sentinels."

Tony's mouth drops open. He's not even certain why because he had those very same thoughts and speculations himself, but to have them speak about so openly, so nonchalantly like it's obvious (which it _is_ ) is shocking somehow. It's like he only realizes now the true extent of those speculations, of what his and Loki's being mates truly means. Though honestly he's a little surprised they so easily accept that he and Loki are truly bonded. "And what... does that actually mean?"

Marco shrugs. "Probably not much in the long run because it's not like we can actually do anything about it anyway. In a thousand years of Sentinel and Guides existing on Earth, this is the first time something like this happened, so it's just a theory for now. Besides, honestly, you would know: would it actually be comforting for an unbonded Sentinel or Guide to know that their mate might not be on Earth, but at least they're in space somewhere?"

Tony winces. "No. Absolutely not." Hope is the worst thing there is. As long as they can believe their mate is dead there at least will be some closure. If they have to consider that their mate might be somewhere out there and just hasn't found them yet? When in a thousand years just one such literally star-crossed pair has found each other? No. It would be an incredibly cruel thing to know, it would be debilitating. Because Tony well remembers what it was like, how being unbonded affects all aspects of one's being, feelings about oneself included. More than once he'd thought his mate was better off without Tony anyway, a thought that now, looking at Loki, almost makes him choke up.

Brows furrowing, Loki reaches out to take his hand. "I would wish to return to this possibility at a later date."

"Of course. Once your bond has further stabilize and if you agree, our scientists will want to question you on things like that. But that's for later. Are you ready for the first set of tests?" Rising, Marco snaps on a pair of gloves – the expensive, Sentinel-safe kind – and waits until Loki nods in agreement before leading them into her examination room again. There she tests Loki's reflexes, which are apparently faster than she's used to, uses a penlight on his pupils and is startled when the light is reflected back at a certain angle. "Tapetum lucidum," she mutters and makes a note about it. "Apologies, I didn't expect that."

Loki shrugs, seeming more amused than anything, and even smiles when she jokingly asks if she should expect two hearts before putting the stethoscope to his chest. (She shouldn't, and Loki's heart seems perfectly fine.) "Most of the differences are not measurable with these kinds of tests," Loki eventually deigns to inform them. "Though there won't be much of a point to the fitness test."

"Well, it might not be straining for you to do, but as long as it gets your heart pumping we'll get some data out of it," Marco replies. A couple of minutes later she stares, open-mouthed, at Loki's heat distribution image.

"What?" Tony asks, perturbed, and peers at the screen. Loki's body is completely red everywhere. "Oh, that's just not true." Both eyebrows flying up, Tony looks at Loki, who grins once. "Come on, we all know you're hot, quit messing around."

"Very well." Loki doesn't seem to outwardly be doing anything but a moment later the image on screen normalizes.

"That was more eventful than I'm used to," is Marco's judgment once they're all sitting again to hear the results of her assessment. "It would probably be pointless to compare your results to Guide Stark's, or any human's for that matter, but from what I can tell you seem healthy. Your blood chemicals are in a good range as well, though you seem to be lacking some nutritional minerals and vitamins there. Since Guide Stark isn't I'll have to conclude that this is leftover from before the two of you met, which might be an indication of- I see you know it's not." Loki's face has gone still and Tony doesn't know what his own face says but the memory of how thin and haggard Loki had been when they had found each other is anything but pleasant. 

"Right." Not commenting any further Marco makes a short note and then continues as if nothing happened, "So you will have to watch out for that, try to eat lots of vegetables. You're on a good path though where that is concerned. Other than that, your bonding hormone levels are in the upper range of normal, higher than Guide Stark's, which hints that you might still have some difficulties coming out of seclusion. I would suggest you progress with this process very slowly, slower than the pace suggested by the Center. If there are set-backs, that's normal. Don't push yourself and listen to your instincts."

"We'll be fine," Tony assures her, taking Loki's hand in his. They will be. He let others interfere too much at first and he will not be making that mistake again.

"Apart from that, I can't say much." Marco shrugs. "Ready for the fitness test?"

Tony ends up being the one to attach the electrodes to Loki's body, getting some gratuitous touches in while he's there already. It's too bad that any mark he leaves on Loki fades relatively quickly, he thinks absently as his fingertips brush along Loki's neck. His own skin is clearly marked.

Loki hops onto the bike and then has to get off again because it's way too short for him. "How practical," is his comment as he watches Marco adjust the height of the saddle.

"No comment about how short I am," Tony warns, because he can just see the sass coming.

Turning towards his Guide, Loki smiles very sweetly. "I would never say anything negative about you, dearest."

Jesus fuck, and Tony actually _blushes_ because what the hell is this, Loki is probably joking but he used a pet name on Tony, and he said it with such earnestness too. And Tony probably _is_ Loki's dearest, that's the core of it.

"You better not," Tony grumbles, but it's weak and Loki's raised eyebrow tells him his Sentinel knows it.

Without comment, Loki gets on the exercise bike and starts the program.

"Right, this is clearly not working," Marco says fifteen minutes in, clearly frustrated. On screen Loki's heartbeat has only barely accelerated and he's on the highest setting possible.

Tony is confused, because he's familiar with Loki's heart beating fast, what with it happening every time they have sex (or emotional upheaval, but that's not a favorable scenario).

Which, actually, sparks an idea. "You just need for his heart to beat fast?"

Marco looks up and tilts her head at Tony's speculative expression. "Yes. What are you thinking?"

"That you might wanna take a coffee break," Tony replies meaningfully.

It takes Marco a moment and even then she doesn't seem like she's quite gotten it, but she nods, says "Good idea" and leaves. Loki, looking relaxed and far too hot (nobody should be allowed to be that attractive while sitting on an _exercise bike_ , for heaven's sake), raises one questioning eyebrow at Tony.

Allowing a smirk to spread on his lips, Tony raises from his chair and drags it forwards, next to the bike. "Sit." He pats it.

Loki isn't too fond of being ordered around, it didn't take Tony long at all to learn that, but he apparently decides to indulge Tony for now and gets off the bike, mindful of the wires still attacked to himself. Smirk still prominent, Tony leans in to kiss him on the lips, lingering but not deep, before sinking to his knees right in front of Loki.

At first his Sentinel looks a little nonplussed but before Tony's knees touch the floor he catches on, eyes going wide with the realization. Tony smiles and slides his hands up Loki's thighs. "Come on, make some room for me." Immediately Loki's legs fall open and he leans back a little, licking his lips while he stares down at Tony.

"You're far too attractive," Loki says, reaching out for Tony's face. His thumb slides across Tony's lower lip, dark eyes tracking the motion. "Sometimes I wish I could make it so nobody ever dares cast their eyes upon you." He could, technically, could lock Tony away somewhere, but the closest he ever got was a complete disaster and they both learned from that. Hearing Loki say it would have made Tony wary just two weeks ago, but not now. Now, he just smiles and flicks his tongue out to lick across the pad of Loki's thumb, watches Loki's eyes go dark and his body go still as his whole focus turns on Tony's mouth. Loki is actually distracted enough not to notice Tony's hands as they slide further up his legs until they reach the elastic hem of the scrubs pants; he jumps when Tony's fingers brush against his skin.

"Let me," Tony murmurs, eyes half-lidded as his fingers hook into the elastic band, and as if under a trance Loki lifts up, lets Tony pull the pants down his hip and over his knees, freeing his swelling cock. He's already halfway there just from the anticipation, the image, and Tony smiles, nips at Loki's thumb before taking his hand, guiding it to the back of his head as he leans in. Loki's fingers curl in his hair as Tony lets his hot breath fan across Loki's erection.

The anticipation is palpable and Tony loves it, loves stretching the moment out a little. When he reaches out with his tongue and lets it wander down, contact just this side of too gentle, Loki makes a noise low in his throat, impatient and urgent. Tony grins and leans in closer, licks his hand and wraps it around Loki's cock, fully hard now, squeezing a little as he leans in again and finally sucks the head into his mouth. The groan Loki makes sends a shiver through his body; he just loves this, loves the way Loki is looking at him and the complete control over Loki's pleasure this position gives him.

And he knows how to use it. Knows how to tease, how to give Loki just enough to push him along but not so much he'll lean back and close his eyes; he wants his Sentinel's eyes on him, wants him to see Tony's lips wrapped around his cock, wants for him to watch as Tony takes him further and further into his mouth. Loki, Tonny has learned this over the past week, loves sex, he does, and what he especially loves about it is how much it makes Tony his, how much it proves that to both them and everybody else. The position Tony is in right now has to especially sate his possessiveness and Tony loves being the one to initiate, control that. Loki is putty under his hands and mouth, one hand in Tony's hair and the other balled into a fist, resting on his thigh while he watches Tony suck his cock, drawing him as far into his mouth as possible before pulling back again, tongue swirling. At one point Loki starts to whine Tony's name, music to his Guide's ears, and it's not long after that that his hips twitch involuntarily, out of his control, and he comes, salt flooding Tony's mouth.

Tony pulls off only once Loki is done, lips a little numb and throat a little raw but very self-satisfied. Loki is looking down at him with wide, adoring eyes, still breathing heavily, eyes tracking Tony's tongue as he licks his lips, swallows.

"You-" Loki starts, reaching for him, but Tony shakes his head even though his dick is so hard it hurts in his jeans.

"Next time I come will be in you. Tonight." That makes Loki's hand go slack for a moment as Loki bites his lower lip, eyes fluttering shut for a moment as he pictures it. When he opens them again they're dark and intense, and he nods.

"Very well."

Tony smiles and plucks at Loki's boxer shorts and scrubs pants, starts to pull them up again; once they're up to his knees Loki rises to his feet and does the rest himself, carelessly hitching them up before holding a hand out for his Guide. As he pulls Tony up he doesn't stop once he's on his feet, just continues pulling until Tony is pressed all up against him, until their lips meet. The kiss is thorough but slow, not really passionate, soothing Tony's raging libido somewhat. "You are marvelous," Loki murmurs once they pull apart, cupping Tony's face with both hands and leaning their foreheads together, closing his eyes.

"I try," Tony jokes, closing his eyes and breathing deep as he tries to think unsexy thoughts. He'd really rather not sit there with a tell-tale bulge in his jeans when Marco comes back.

It doesn't quite work out but Tony is standing with his back to the door and when she returns, way before she actually opens the door, Loki hears her approach and tightens his grip on Tony, pulls him close into his body. After knocking briefly she enters the room.

"All good," Tony says, trying to peer at her but he can't turn around properly because Loki keeps his arm firm around Tony's waist, watching Marco's every move with glittering eyes.

Pointedly ignoring the byplay, Marco moves to the computer and looks at the results. "Very good. I really don't want to know what happened, but this will be helpful. By next time we'll have to have something else figured out though."

No need, Tony thinks, he really doesn't mind, but Loki is a little more vigilant right now about keeping Tony close and protected, which is either because Tony just blew him or because Tony was still half hard when Marco came in. He's fine now and Loki's grip on him is relaxing somewhat, so that might be the correlation.

"Are you ready for the MRI?" Marco asks, and Loki is, so they do that. Tony is a bit nervous about it – those machines are loud and also Loki will be in an enclosed, tight space that it won't be easy for him to get out of. Not difficult either, but he'll feel the barrier between him and Tony keenly and they have no idea how he'll handle that. Still, Loki said he'd be alright and Tony trusts him to know himself well enough to make such an assessment.

"You're hovering," Loki says with some amusement, holding his arm out and not reacting at all as Marco injects the contrasting agent into his veins.

"Am not," Tony protests feebly, plucking at Loki's shirt and frowning.

"I'll be alright." Kissing Tony's pursed lips, Loki leans in to rub his nose against Tony's cheek. "Just stay relaxed. As long as your heartbeat stays calm, so shall I."

"Right." Frowning, Tony leans in for another kiss before stepping back and watching as they pull Loki into the MRI. Feeling a little stupid and fussy, he then follows Marco into the other room and takes a seat on a chair she indicates having been put aside for him, literally in a corner. The nurse slash technician completely ignores him, which is probably for the better.

As the machine works he watches the image appear on screen, cross sections of Loki's bod, and it suddenly occurs to him that Loki never had a medical, he has no idea if his Sentinel is even healthy. "Is he okay?" he asks, leaning forwards a little and frowning and the images in varying shades of gray.

Marco and the nurse seem a little surprised to be addressed, like they forgot he's even here while they exchanged comments full of medical jargon about whatever they were seeing, or the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy for all that Tony knows. "So far, he appears perfectly fine," Marco replies after a moment.

"These things are fine enough to show anything, right? Blood clots? Tumors? Anything that might be wrong?"

Now Marco turns her full focus on him. "Yes. The Center uses newest technology. But from what we've seen so far, Sentinel Loki appears to be perfectly healthy, apart from the bloodwork we discussed earlier. In fact, it's unusual how healthy he is, but a lot about Sentinel Loki is unusual."

At that, a smile steals onto Tony's face because yes, that's very true. "Yeah."

"Of course, I can't possibly draw any conclusions right now, much like I couldn't with your results. It takes time and careful analysis; I expect to have both your results ready within the week, however, and should something concerning come up, I'll let you know immediately. Would that be alright?"

"Yeah." Tony nods. "That's good, yeah. Thanks." He sits back in his chair again and waits. Once the machine is done and Marco goes to let Loki out Tony trails her and paws at Loki's ankles as soon as they appear, then his shins, his knees, wanders his fingers up his thigh and then smooths down some invisible creases in Loki's shirt above his belly and chest. He wouldn't have thought he'd be this clingy, but everyone has told him to stay true to his instincts, so that's what he's doing. If he wants to touch Loki anywhere, he's gonna do that. Even if right now he wants to touch him everywhere.

Loki is blinking at him, a slight smile playing around his lips and Tony touches that too, but with his own lips, a swift peck before pulling away again, nevertheless a little embarrassed at his neediness. Nobody comments on it in any way, though, not by words not by looking at him strangely, though Loki, once he sits up, casually slings one arm around Tony's waist and keeps him close as he listens to whatever Marco is telling him. Something about his results and tomorrow, or something. Tony couldn't care less right now.

Then Loki hops off the cot and leans in for a kiss, and by the time Tony's eyes flutter open again they're in the apartment. In the bedroom, to be exact.

"I seem to remember you saying something about coming in me," Loki says with a sly smile, and yeah, Tony did say that. So, without a word – he's feeling a little beyond words right now, not that Loki appears to mind – he gives Loki a push so he lands on the mattress and crawls on top of him.


	2. Chapter 2

It turns out that day two of their testing, they can come in a little later. They also don't need to go through the lobby; apparently Marco told Loki they can come directly to her office if they prefer, which they do. So at eight am pretty much on the dot, they appear there and make her startle.

"Holy-" she puts a hand on her chest and exhales. "I was expecting you."

Clearly. Tony smiles politely. "Today's Guide and Sentinel separate testing, right? With what do we start? Or can we pick?"

Regaining her equilibrium, Marco slips into professional mode. "Technically, Guide testing is supposed to be done first because we've found that Guides settle down easier from their kind of testing than Sentinels do, and testing the Sentinel first can sometimes lead to the pair being edgy for the rest of the day, which can falsify the Guide's results. Though if you really prefer we can do Sentinel testing first. Besides, a certain degree of overlap is part of the test."

Tony glances at Loki, then shrugs. "I don't mind going first."

So they head towards an especially allotted training area where Marco introduces them to a middle-aged Guide, a little older than Tony and bonded since he was twelve, so very stable. His Sentinel isn't even in the room or that close by, though they're probably somewhere on the same floor.

"Do you meditate often?" the Guide, Thomas, asks as he leads Tony into a training room. Loki doesn't join them; he goes with Marco into the room next to this one. As far as separation goes it's not much, but it's enough to have Tony a little nervous nevertheless. He doesn't even know whether Thomas is trying to distract him with his questions or if the answers are actually important, but he decides to treat them as if they were the latter, if only because it'll make the former more successful.

"Occasionally. I didn't use to, I got so bored, my attention would just go in under ten seconds. I couldn't really stay still for a minute, and if I did, it's because I fell asleep." Tony shrugs.

Thomas nods, not sympathetically – something that, coming from him, would've rung false considering how long he's been bonded. "Guides often have reported concentration issues the longer they were unbonded. Did that change since your bonding?"

They get comfortable on two different, thick exercise mats waiting for them, sitting cross legged with their hands loosely in their laps. Tony moves into the position with a naturalness born from many Guide classes that never really stopped. "Yeah, definitely," he nods, not even having to think about it. "Especially if I'm doing it with Loki together."

Thomas smiles. "That's good. Have you ever done Guide meditation classes?"

"Not since I actually had classes, and the mandatory ones over the years." Tony grimaces. He'd skipped out of the mandatory ones whenever he could; it's been a handful of years since he's last been. "It was easier then, but I don't know if that was because we were in a group and doing it together or because I was younger."

"Both could be a factor," Thomas grants. "In any case, you'll find that it's different now meditating with another Guide, if only because you won't be required to lead the meditation as you've probably gotten used to lately. I'm not saying that during meditation with your Sentinel you're unequal strictly speaking, but Sentinels just aren't as sensitive mentally. Some more so than others, but even the most proficient Sentinel on record was below the least proficient Guide on record as far as mental delicacy was concerned." He grins conspiratorially. "My Sentinel is like the proverbial elephant in the China shop, really."

Tony snorts a laugh. "Actually I'm not sure Loki is bad at it at all. I'm not sure how to tell the difference though."

"Maybe this meditation will help you with that. Ready to start?"

"Yeah."

They both close their eyes and start to breath deeply. As Tony tries to even his breathing he finds that talking with Thomas has actually helped distract and calm him; he still isn't happy that Loki isn't in his sphere of direct influence, but he isn't really anxious about it.

Now isn't the time to think about that, though; he allows the thought to well up, not trying to suppress it or force it away, but then he lets it go without examining it further, the way he's been taught to in training. And unlike before their bonding, he actually can do that now. He was aware of the changes in his meditation abilities, of course, but never so starkly until Thomas made him pay attention by reminding him of how it used to be. Before Loki, when he let a thought go – and his thoughts were sticky like honey so that was very difficult for him to begin with, unlike the smooth, almost easy shaking off it's becoming now, a noticeable progress the more he practices – another would immediately clamor up to take its place. More, if he wasn't careful the thoughts were the unwelcome kind that's hard to get rid of once it comes, like of his parents or how empty his life was or Afghanistan or his Sentinel, how they had died, who they had been. Compared to that, he had preferred to allow his other thoughts to distract him before he got that far.

He doesn't need to worry about that anymore now, not since the bonding. And even without Loki in the room his mind sinks into that tranquil state fairly easily, slow but alert and awake, focused wholly inwards. Tony examines his feelings as he sinks deeper into his mind, the worry and pride and excitement and vague annoyance, lets them wash over him and then pass on, still there but not demanding for his attention. Once he's wholly familiar with his current state of mind Tony concentrates on firming his shields. Though that's a misleading choice of words; it's rather a burying of himself, sort of curling up tight enough so nothing will slip out accidentally – hopefully, that is. Eventually, when Tony is fairly sure he's good to go, he takes that balled up bundle that is him, curls around it and opens his eyes.

Not his physical eyes; by this point he's barely aware of his physical state of being. Technically it's not opening his eyes either, it's opening his outermost shields, the ones that keep him from mentally leaking all over everything, dipping into everyone's minds if they're close enough to him. Every Guide instinctively develops those shields before they're even aware; some theories go they're in-born, though some scientists argue that if that were the case it'd be impossible to lose them. And some Guides do, if they've remained unbonded for too long.

Tony doesn't know, and he doesn't care; in his imagination he's always pictured himself like an egg. The yellow is what he draws into himself because he doesn't want somebody outside to get at it, the white is him, all the filler stuff, and the shell are his outermost shields. He doesn't lower them so much as he stretches his mental feelers out beneath them, immediately finding Thomas waiting for him patiently, unobtrusively.

And Thomas was right, it does feel different. Not just because this isn't his Sentinel and Tony instinctively recoils before they can even come into contact – nobody but Loki is allowed to touch him mentally as well as physically – but Thomas just feels different. Agile, sort of, slippery, like a fish, and similarly unpleasant.

They don't touch, of course they don't, it would be inappropriate, but once Tony has passed on a vague feeling of permission to Thomas' delicate inquiry Thomas examines Tony's shields, communicating to him without words that they're very good, maybe even impressive, though with the mental contact Tony can't be sure if they're impressive because they're just that good or if it's an "under the circumstances" or "considering" kind of thing. Before the bonding, his shields at least didn't catch anybody's special attention, though every now and then the Guide testing him during the annual exam would remark that they were better than expected, or something along those lines. It's always a "considering the circumstances" where unbonded Guides are concerned. Tony had always hated it, found it condescending, and he still does, but right now he can't feel anything but relief and happiness that he isn't somebody of those circumstances anymore, even if the annoyance at how he's been treated in the past remains.

Eventually Thomas seems to be satisfied and pulls away, signaling an end to the meditation and examination of Tony's shields. He pulls back into himself and slowly uncurls himself, letting his mind spread out again; once of the few times he'd even managed to get this far he hadn't bothered and had suffered a severe dissonance when he had become aware again. Basically he'd been a sociopath for a couple of hours, not at all in touch with his personality and emotions as he recovered. He's definitely not looking to repeat the experience now and thus takes his time. During training they'd been told that the more he practiced the faster he'd get until it would become instinctive, done in a matter of seconds. Tony definitely isn't anywhere close to that, but considering the progress he's made since the bonding he figures it's not as utopian anymore as it used to be.

Thomas is smiling at him when Tony opens his eyes. "Alright?"

"Yeah, fine." Tony shakes himself a little before stretching thoroughly. "Again?"

"You should take a couple of minutes," Thomas advises even as the door opens and Loki steps in, followed by Marco. "Take a short break, have some coffee." While he talks to the doctor to discuss his findings, right.

"Not gonna say no to that." Holding out one hand, Tony lets Loki pull him upright and brushes their bodies together, gives Loki a light kiss before pulling away, though not without tangling their fingers. So what if he's a little clingy, they're newly bonded and certainly nobody in the Center will make any comment about it. In the outside world, maybe, depending on the circles, but not here.

"What happened?" Loki asks as they walk down the hall towards the break room. It's really useful to have a Sentinel close by who can literally sniff out the nearest source of coffee.

"We meditated, he examined my shields, that's it. Could you feel anything?"

"No." Loki sounds conflicted about it. "Though I could hear your heartbeat slow the way it does when you meditate."

Tony smiles at him and bumps their shoulders together. "Maybe that should be creepy, how close you monitor my heartbeat, but I actually like it."

"I find it calming," Loki admits before falling silent as he opens the door to the break room. It's empty but there is freshly brewed coffee in the pot, more than enough for two cups.

"To know how relaxed I am?" Tony isn't really paying attention to the conversation as he searches for cups, spoons, sugar and milk, the latter two actually Sentinel safe. He shouldn't be surprised.

"To know that you are there, and alive," Loki replies, and that thoroughly captures Tony's attention. He blinks and looks at Loki.

"Is that something you're worried about? That I'd leave or die?"

Loki grimaces. "I am very aware of your mortality. But I do not think you'd leave out of your own volition."

"Nobody could take me from you," Tony says seriously, leaning in to nudge Loki's nose with his own. "I'd rip them apart if they tried. And if they were using magic, _you_ would rip them apart."

One hand finding its way to the small of Tony's back, where it settles warm and comfortable, Loki breathes in, inhaling his Guide's smell. "Rationally, I know the probability is very low. If worst came to worst, I would flee the fight and take you with me."

"But the way we feel isn't always rational, huh?" Leaning in to kiss Loki again, Tony lets the contact linger, feels Loki's warmth and hopes Loki is comforted by his presence.

"No, it's not." With a sigh Loki squeezes Tony a little before stepping back and letting him continue doctoring their coffees. Once he's done they take a seat at one of the tables while Tony tries to explain the changes that happened with his shielding and meditation abilities since Loki came into his life, which is a little difficult because Loki has no frame of reference. Actually, Loki is shocked when he hears that without shields, Guides would just turn into mental tentacle monsters, reaching out into every direction, catching everything and unable to filter even to protect themselves, much less others.

"I will teach you how to protect yourself from magical influence," Loki says firmly, because somehow he seems to think there is a correlation.

Tony doesn't get it, and also, what? "Magical influence? What do you mean?"

"I don't do it often because it's a very imprecise and unreliable method," Loki not-quite-explains, "but it is possible to magically influence a person's thoughts. Just surface thoughts, no deep-seated opinions and certainly not feelings, or at least just very few, gifted individuals are able to influence a person's feelings, but it's possible."

Blinking, Tony tries to process that. "Wait. Is this a "these aren't the droids you are looking for" sorta thing?"

Having been introduced to Star Wars by Tony some time ago, Loki nods. "Exactly like that, actually. It's unreliable because depending on the recipient's abilities the influence will not last long, if it takes hold at all. I prefer to actually convince people to my side, if I can't get around needing them in the first place."

"Yeah, but wait. To influence a person's thoughts, you have to be able to read them, right?" Mental abilities. His Sentinel has mental abilities refined enough to do that. Tony isn't sure how he feels about that but his first reaction is pouting because that's supposed to be his area of expertise.

Fortunately he doesn't have to figure out his next reaction because Loki is already shaking his head. "You merely need to impress the thought you wish to pass on firmly enough into the recipient's mind. It's very difficult, however."

Tony tilts his head. "You know that technically I could do that, right? Easily? Also when you said it's virtually impossible to influence people's feelings, I can do that too. Easily. Actually that's sort of in the Guide job description."

Now it's Loki's turn to blink. "I thought- I thought this was limited to the Guide's Sentinel. And you did mention that Guides help calm agitated crowds down, but... perhaps I misunderstood. Do you mean you can purposefully alter the way a person feels?"

"Yes," Tony says bluntly, because clearly a miscommunication happened here. He'd thought he'd explained his abilities to Loki – besides which, Loki has been surfing the internet for information for weeks now. But apparently neither the internet nor Tony were blunt enough, and of course he needs to spell it out, he should have realized that. Loki doesn't remotely have the same frame of reference as Tony, after all. So he elaborates. "I can make people feel a certain way. Yes, just my presence is naturally soothing to most people – while it's aggravating to others, and there are some theories that there is a correlation with natural mental shields, but that's never been proven and personally I think it might possibly be true for some people, for others it's just because they're biased against Guides for whatever reason. Anyways, but I can make people feel any way I want to. The more people I need to influence the more complicated it gets, and the less refined, but I can do that. I could technically also alter people's thoughts, but that's heavily punished – consciously influencing a person's feelings is as well, but reading and influencing thoughts is even worse in the eyes of the law. Besides, just the thought is distasteful enough for most Guides to never even want to attempt it even for research purposes on volunteers, so it's very spottily documented. Especially because unbonded Guides rarely have the control to really do it. But, yeah." Just shut up, Tony. Loki isn't going to recoil from him just because he now knows what Tony actually can do, so there is no need to babble. Even now, his Sentinel actually looks curious if anything, intrigued, but nowhere near repulsed.

"How interesting," Loki says. "It's a skill I would have associated with magic, not with this. Perhaps Guide abilities are actually... but no, that makes no sense, specific magical abilities cannot be inherited. The propensity to perform magic, yes, much like intelligence, but it's rare that certain talents regularly reoccur within a family tree."

It takes Tony a moment to figure out what Loki is saying – or rather, excluding. When he does he tilts his head. "Your Sentinel abilities and magic are two different things though, right?" When Loki nods he nods as well. "There you have it. Guide and Sentinel abilities come from the same origin."

"It's just very interesting," Loki says, "that there are two ways of doing something – of influencing a person's thoughts, one which is very difficult, one which comes easily to the people with the ability but is impossible for those without."

"Technically it comes easily," Tony protests immediately, because no. That's not a misconception he's willing to let stand, ever. "Practically it really, really doesn't. I mean, just the thought of touching another person's mind..." he shudders. "Much less to the extent needed for that to happen. Just, no." He takes a deep breath in an attempt to shake the nausea that wells up in him, and then another. It only really gets better when Loki touches him, eyes attentive as he cups his Guide's face. Tony looks at him and swallows. "Only my Sentinel is allowed to touch me like that, okay? So in an absolute emergency, acute life or death situation I could probably do it but I'd..." He shudders again. He'd probably feel severely ill afterwards, and for quite a while. There are only a few cases documented in history of Guides having to exert this skill. The most recent ones are from during the Vietnam war, when female Vietnamese Guides, well, needed to defend themselves. None of them killed themselves – so long as they were bonded with their Sentinels still alive, that is – but the few who had even been willing to talk about it to the Center had said that they had wanted to, a little. One of them, eyes huge and empty in her face as she stared into nothing for the whole duration of the interview, had said that it had felt like the worst kind of intrusion, and for a long time she thought she was tainted, felt her Sentinel would be better off without her. The person – their identity remained protected for obvious reasons – she'd influenced had technically not been the worse for wear, apart from the fact that he could never again even think about touching a woman without her consent. It was a pretty traumatic experience all around. Tony had very much regretted badgering his rep until he allowed him access to the Center's data on the matter. Her face will probably haunt Tony forever, especially now that he knows what it's like to be bonded.

"Tony," Loki's voice pierces through his thoughts. Brows furrowed, Loki cups his face with both hands and leans in. "I don't know where you went in your thoughts just now."

"Things nobody wants to know," Tony says, shuddering a little.

Loki's frown deepens. "You never-"

"God, no." Screwing his eyes shut, Tony shakes himself. "No. Thank fuck. No. Nevermind that I probably wouldn't have managed anyway. But, no." The only time he reasonably might have gotten into a situation where he might have had to had been Afghanistan, and Stane afterward, but Stane hadn't touched him skin on skin, mad but smart enough, and the terrorists had beat Tony up, yeah, and it hadn't been a walk in the park, but things hadn't gotten bad enough that Tony might have had to.

"Good." Breathing out a sigh of relief, Loki leans in and presses a kiss to Tony's forehead. "Do you wish to go home?"

Tony blinks and abruptly remembers where they are. God, he really fucked up the "take a break to be tranquil" part. "Not really." He wants to get the tests over with.

Loki furrows his brows. "If you are sure you'll be capable of the rest of the test..."

Well. Tony closes his eyes and exhales. "Not right now, probably." Meditation, okay. Letting somebody else almost touch him mentally? Probably not a good idea so shortly after this conversation.

"A longer break then, perhaps?" Loki suggests, and Tony quickly nods. He'll take that, yes.

"Do you want for me to take you home before I tell Dr. Marco?"

Tony frowns. "I'm not... traumatized." And if anything, he doesn't appreciate being coddled. "I can tell her myself."

So they head back to the room where Thomas and Marco are waiting for them.

"So, I'm gonna need a longer break," Tony says.

Thomas starts to frown when he sees Tony. "What happened? You look shaken. Is everything okay?"

"Uh. So it turns out the language we use here to describe Guide abilities is a little too metaphorical so I explained to Loki how we can influence people's thoughts."

"Oh." Thomas swallows, face turning grave. "I understand. Would an hour be enough?"

Tony glances at Loki. "Sure."

"Then we'll reconvene in an hour," Marco decides.

Loki's hand encircles Tony's wrist, and then they're in their bedroom. "I'm a little confused what has you so shaken, but I'm not sure if talking about it will be a good idea."

"Just." Frustrated, Tony purses his lips as he tries to put it in a way Loki will understand. "Imagine if someone had sex with me. Their scent would be all over me. Just picture it."

The grip Loki still has on Tony's wrist tightens as his face goes cold. "Voluntarily, or forced?"

Jesus fucking Christ. "You know the answer to that," Tony snaps and pulls his arm away, stalks over to the bed and crawls underneath the blanket. It's unmade because they're lazy and don't see the point in making a bed anyway, so it still smells of them. Comforted, Tony curls up and calls himself an idiot for believing they had dealt with most of the misconceptions or misunderstandings or mis-whatevers based on Loki's not having grown up aware of Guides and Sentinels and everything that entails.

After a moment the mattress dips as Loki climbs into bed as well, slides underneath the blanket until he gets to where Tony is curled up. He looks serious and a little sorry when he reaches out and carefully brushes his fingertips across Tony's cheekbones. "I'm sorry. I understand, I think. Let's not talk about it again, alright?"

"You have to trust me," Tony says, and it sounds like an order but comes out plaintive instead.

"I do," Loki immediately hastens to assure. "I do. I'm just not used to it, so I will slip up. I'm sorry."

And maybe Tony knows a little what that's like, after Stane's betrayal he had even mistrusted Pepper for a while as he descended into paranoia, and besides, it's easy to forgive Loki, especially with his hair all messed up from the blanket. So he nods and lets Loki come closer, curl up around him and press his nose into the back of Tony's neck.

After a short-ish nap Tony feels mostly good to go again, though he's a little annoyed at everything mostly because he thinks interruptions like that could be avoided if he and Loki communicated better. Sure, that's easy to say in hindsight, but still, it's frustrating to know that they'll probably for quite a while yet stumble over issues like that. It's just stupid and unnecessary, in his opinion.

"Alright," Thomas says when they reappear in the room; he was already waiting. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." Tony plops down on the second mat and pulls Loki down with him. "Should we touch for this or what? I've never done this before."

"Whatever you're comfortable with, but obviously, since this is to see how much your Sentinel enhances your abilities, touching has been proven to work best for that."

And really, what else is there? For Loki to sing Tony lullabies from the other end of the room or what? Well, whatever.

While Thomas already closes his eyes and gets started Tony arranges his Sentinel until Loki is sitting behind him, Tony leaning against his chest, before exhaling slowly, trying to dispel his frustration. "Okay, let's go."

Somehow without Tony noticing, Loki managed to sneak a hand under his shirt; it's resting on his belly now, warm and somehow radiating calm. Tony concentrates on that, lets the feeling spread through him as he breathes deeply, evenly and tries to let all thoughts go. Loki's presence helps, his heart beating strong and slow against Tony's back, the way Loki is wrapped around him like he's keeping him, or protecting him. Both, probably, Loki isn't yet entirely comfortable with them being outside. Tony isn't either, honestly, but he won't know how much he doesn't like it until he comes across an unbonded Guide. They've been proven to make newly bonded Guides bristle, despite how ridiculous that is; it's not like Guides are interchangeable. Popular theory is that with so many Guides and so relatively few Sentinels, it's an instinctive, revolutionary response. Whatever.

But Thomas is bonded, has been for so long even a mundane could tell; there's just something about the way bonded Guides feel that radiates calm and security and Thomas has that in spades. But nevertheless, he's here to examine Tony and Loki sort of too, so when Tony gets started on building his shields he makes sure to wrap Loki up very safely and securely, pulls himself all around him so nothing can get to him. Then he reinforces his shields and only when he's sure Loki is perfectly safe does he let Thomas' hovering presence closer, allows him to do his examination thing.

When Thomas is done Tony keeps his shields up while he slowly unwraps himself from around Loki, and even then he's reluctant to let go. But he's already clingy enough, he doesn't need to include this too, so he doesn't linger and lets himself and Loki emerge slowly, but steadily from the trance.

Thomas' eyes are already open when Tony blinks; behind him Loki stirs as in he buries his nose in Tony's hair and breathes in for a moment. "Well?" Tony asks. He's curious but otherwise calm, none of his earlier annoyance left.

"You're probably aware that you were swifter and more efficient this time," Thomas tells him with a slight smile. "Also, your shields were much more potent. If I had had any doubt at your ability to protect yourself and your Sentinel from mental intrusion – which I hadn't, your shields were certainly sufficient before – they would be well laid to rest now."

Well, Tony didn't have any doubts either, but that's good to know. It's also all he needs; he'll read the more in-depth analysis when he gets his copy of the report. "Great. What test comes now?"

Thomas smiles. "The Guide test."

Aw, great. Tony hates the Guide test. Technically a lot of tests are Guide tests because Guides are being tested, duh, but this particular test is colloquially referred to as Guide test because the subjective is to pick bonded Guides from a crowd of Guides. It's a test reserved only to Guides because the Center has been there, done that. What with common sense not being common the more people are involved in the decision making, they didn't realize that sticking a bunch of territorial Sentinels in a room and then adding a freshly bonded one to the mix might not be too good an idea until they did it and it became obvious.

Anyways, Tony hates the Guide test, because he always fails. He was never asked to participate on the other end before either, he was never asked to participate in any sort of test where he wasn't the one being tested because of his recognition factor; everyone knew he was Tony Stark and everyone also knew that Tony Stark wasn't bonded. Even before Tony became properly famous and mostly on his own merits, in Sentinel Guide circles his name and face were never unknown. That's what happens if a member of a minority is famous to a degree.

After every time he flunked the stupid test Tony had always been told that once he bonded he would have no problem doing it, but since he hasn't been bonded until now he has no idea how much that's true, and he will never forget being twelve and made to enter a room of giggling teenagers with a few people in their twenties in between and having to pick out which ones of them were bonded. It didn't help that everyone in the crowd knew the answer. And it never stopped being humiliating, not even when Tony was twice as old as the average age of the Guides present in the room and all he did was open the door, wait for a minute or two because otherwise they'd make him go in again, and then randomly point to five people all without taking off his shades or properly looking at anybody.

"Is this a difficult test?" Loki asks him as they follow Marco and Thomas to wherever the teenagers are assembled.

Tony scowls. "It's not supposed to be, but at the same time, it is, yeah. It's one of those you either can or can't do it things, and I never could do it, and I might be better at it now because everyone's told me I would be once I'm bonded but who the fuck knows?" In any case, not one pleasant memory is attached to these tests, so Tony isn't in too great a mood when Thomas and Marco gesture towards a door and explain briefly what the test is supposed to be about, that he can take all the time he needs, it's okay if he fails because even some bonded Guides take a while before their senses are refined enough. It's probably supposed to be reassuring, but isn't. As in, at all.

Without lingering, Tony opens the door and strolls into the room. The people in there, previously involved in conversations, fall silent and all turn to him and stare. Because yeah, that's what happens when you're a famous member of a minority. Tony sighs and crosses his arms.

Right. He's tempted to just bullshit his way through as usual but part of him is curious, so he closes his eyes, exhales noisily and tries to focus on his senses. Senses he never used before, it's okay if he doesn't yet know how to use them, blah blah blah, but he's trained with Loki so he knows at least a little how to open his mind to the... for lack of better word, vibes in his environment. The room is isolated and somebody closed the door after Tony, probably Loki, so all Tony feels is thirteen people ranging from twelve to twenty-one.

Teenagers are normally especially difficult for Guides because they're prone to out of control emotions and spike higher than others, but with this test this turns out to be a gift. Where before Tony would either not get enough or too much from them, now it feels like a couple of them are pools of calm in the mess. He's all set to pinpoint them as the bonded Guides when he remembers that some teenagers are actually calm by nature – or at least rumor has it, Tony certainly was never one of them – and so he focuses on the calm ones. Two of them feel a bit... familiar. Uncomfortably so, in a way Tony would rather not think about or be reminded of, so he exhales and opens his eyes. "You, you, you and you," he says, pointing at the four remaining ones.

Their carefully schooled faces move from neutrality to beaming smiles. "Yes!" one of them says. "You did it!"

"In less than two minutes too!" Somebody else comments, and wow. Two minutes is the limit of how long Tony had to stay in a room before they had to let his bullshit answer pass – they were not stupid, of course they knew he wasn't really trying, but so long as he stayed in the room for longer than two minutes they had no ground to send him back.

"Cool," Tony says, allowing himself a brief smile. "Thanks, you were all great, bye!"

He makes for the door but of course he doesn't quite get there in time. "Mr. Stark!" one of them calls out, a guy in his mid-teens with earnest, brown eyes. "I just wanted to say, you're my role model. Thank you."

Tony blinks. "For what?"

"I was abducted a year ago," the guy says matter-of-factly, as if he weren't speaking about one of an unbonded Guide's greatest fears in a roomful of unbonded Guides. Some of them literally shudder. "And I kept thinking about how you had been too, but you were fine in the end, and then you became Iron Man. That helped a lot."

Floored, all Tony can do is swallow and nod. "I'm glad to hear that. You made it out okay?"

"The Center came for us before we were smuggled out of the country, but." The guy shrugs, not needing to elaborate. Most people but all Guides know the horror stories of unbonded Guides being abducted to countries without a Center-like presence and made to meet all the Sentinels. Everybody knows that a bond can't be forced, but that doesn't stop some people from trying anyway. In various ways, all of which are severely... unpleasant for the Guide.

This isn't the first time somebody compared a horrible experience they went through with Tony's, and Tony feels always awkward about it because he has no idea what the fuck to say. So he settles for an awkward nod. "Yeah. I'm glad I helped, but you know it's all you, right? You don't need me as your role model anymore, you can be your own role model."

Delighted, the guy flushes and ducks his head. "Thanks. But I'll still, uh, keep you as my role model, if you don't mind."

"It'd be my honor," Tony says earnestly. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Erin. Feller."

"Nice to meet you, Erin Feller," Tony says and shakes the guy's hand. He smiles when Erin gushes out a nervous, "uh, you too," and waves before opening the door and leaving the room. Loki stands in front of the door, a little stiff with his hands in the small of his back; even though the dampener in the walls is aimed at Guides and he still should've been able to hear what went on inside he doesn't look entirely happy. Tony purposefully brushes against him while addressing Thomas and Marco. "Well?"

"One minute, fifty-one seconds," Thomas reports. "Well on the average scale for bonded Guides."

Great. "Now let me guess, once more with feeling?"

Thomas snorts. "Exactly." He gestures towards the door on the opposite side of the corridor. "Whenever you are ready."

Might as well get this all over with. "Ready?" Tony asks Loki as he heads over to the door.

"Of course," Loki says, and so Tony doesn't dawdle, opens the door and strolls inside, Loki following in his track. As before, the people inside fall silent and turn to stare at him, but much more at Loki. Not overly surprising, actually, but off-putting. Pursing his lips, Tony closes his eyes and concentrates. Unprompted, Loki puts a hand in the small of his back and mere moments after Tony's attention snaps to the five Guides he doesn't feel as uncomfortable with.

"Okay, done," he says, opening his eyes and gesturing at the ones he pinpointed. "You five."

They smile and everybody stops doing the motionless, expressionless staring thing that's really creepy. Which means that a cluster of girls – well, two girls and one boy all around sixteen years of age, none of them bonded – giggle and wave. "Hi Mr. Stark!" they chorus.

Tony was wrong. _This_ is creepy. He raises one eyebrow. "Hi, teenagers I've never met before in my entire life."

They beam as if he paid them a compliment. One of them leans in and whispers at stage level, "Your Sentinel is really hot."

Oh, really? "I noticed," Tony says dryly.

Clearly taking his reply as some sort of encouragement, she eagerly leans forwards even further and asks, "Is it true that he's an alien?"

"Alien Prince, let's all keep that in mind," Tony points out haughtily, because why the hell not, and also can she please stop looking at Loki that way, fucking hell. "Also, he's really not deaf."

"Quite the opposite, really," Loki says silkily and with his smooth voice and vaguely British accent and those cheekbones, that's really not gonna dissuade anyone.

True to form, the girl and her friends flush deep red and stare at Loki. Before they can get over their shock Tony aims an entirely false smile at the room, throws out an "Thanks y'all, bye," and herds Loki back out.

"Jesus," he hisses once the door is closed between Loki and them. "What even?"

"One minute, sixteen seconds," Thomas says very dryly. "On the upper end of the scale. Also, welcome to the world of bonded Guides. Our bestsellers include Some Unbonded Guides Will _Always_ Find Your Sentinel Attractive, Teenagers Can Be Really Inappropriate and Be Glad Nobody Offered You A Threesome. Tip for the future: don't jump anybody who does, and they will."

Tony stares at him in mute horror. "Why did nobody mention this to me before?"

"It's not in any handbook because people like to think Guides sit around like dignified little housewives, waiting for their Sentinel to come find them." Thomas sighs and turns a little more serious. "When Sentinels behave out of line it attracts more attention because they tend towards aggressive-aggressive behavior, whereas most Guides tend more towards the passive-aggressive type of inappropriate, like you just experienced, and that's easier to overlook. This was rather mild, really. Most won't try to touch him but some might."

Mouth firming, Tony straightens his back. "They'll only try once." That's so inappropriate he hasn't even thought about how he'd react, but he's already figuring out how he would respond if that happened. Shame he can't do the magically breaking every bone in your hand thing.

"Sometimes this can be an early sign of insanity," Thomas explains. "Sometimes it's just an expression of desperation, and sometimes it's just hormones, like just now. You were a teenage unbonded Guide, you know what it's like."

Yeah, but Tony would never have touched anybody else's Guide. Even the mere thought is inconceivable and he grimaces.

"I will not permit anybody to touch me, if you do not wish it," Loki involves himself. His brows are knitted. "I'm just surprised you haven't mentioned your discomfort before."

"It's not... it's unbonded Guides really," Tony tries to explain, "and also it's just, okay, we're so recently bonded I'm bound to be a little oversensitive about stuff like that still. I'm not gonna be happy if people touch you, but it's unbonded Guides who really make me uncomfortable, and it's supposed to get better over time."

"It will," Thomas confirms. "I've been bonded for twenty-five years and I haven't minded unbonded Guides trying to touch my Sentinel for twenty-four of them. By the time we were bonded for two years I think I actually found it amusing." He shrugs at Tony's incredulous look. "It was sad, really, in hindsight, because clearly no bonded Sentinel is ever going to be interested." A small smirk steals across his face. "Of course it helped that my Sentinel isn't what most people would call conventionally attractive. Nobody would ever have asked us to pose together on the cover for GQ."

Oh, great. Tony sighs and throws a wry look towards Loki. Then he pauses. "Wait, GQ cover? What?"

Thomas blinks. "Oh, you wouldn't know, of course. Sorry. I don't really know how it started but there's a petition to get Tony Stark and his Sentinel on the cover of GQ. Though come to think, they wouldn't even know what Sentinel Loki looks like; only his name has been released to the public."

"Who is GQ, and why is there a petition for us to cover for them?" Loki asks.

"No, GQ is a magazine, like the gossip websites I showed you." And hadn't that been fun, trying to explain to Loki what media is and how it worked here. "They want to take a picture of us, I'm pretty sure it's just so they can say they did it first, like a celebrity baby or something."

Loki furrows his brows. "This is entirely pointless. The great amount of interest Midgardians put into other people's life is appalling and mystifying."

"Amen to that," Thomas agrees. He then glances at Marco before aiming a question at them. "What do you think, lunch break, then the Sentinel tests?"

Tony glances at Loki who shrugs, not bothered either way. "Yeah, fine."

"Alright. Let me introduce my Sentinel first so you'll know her." With that Thomas wanders off and returns shortly later with a woman who really isn't going to appear on the cover for GQ anytime soon, with her broad shoulders, strong nose and heavy eyebrows. Not that Tony really cares either way, she's Thomas' Sentinel and it's clear they care for each other a lot. That's all that matters as far as Tony is concerned. "This is my Sentinel, Sandrine."

"Hi." Tony waves and stays safely by Loki's side; she barely glances at him before focusing on Loki calmly. The two Sentinels assess each other for a moment, then Loki inclines his head and says, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Likewise," she returns, smiling without showing any teeth. "Congratulations on your bonding. It's always good to hear that a mated pair has found each other."

Clever. She clearly has a lot of practice at this, though considering her Guide's and also her own job, she probably would have. Though Tony's gotta say that Loki isn't tense at all; he appears calm and completely undisturbed despite how relatively close she is to Tony. And if Guides are mildly territorial about their Sentinels in the face of unbonded Guides, Sentinels are basically constant vigilance when even bonded Sentinels come within remote proximity to their recently bonded mates. There are a lot of theories on the reason for this, but consensus generally is that this is rooted in the fact that a Sentinel's nature is inherently aggressive whereas Guides are inherently defensive. Blah blah. Tony has shown them how "passive by nature" he is.

They do some smalltalk – Sandrine and Loki do, that is, politely acknowledging that the other is bonded to signal their awareness that the respective Guide is not available and that they respect this. It's fascinating how easily Loki handles this whole song and dance without having once been coached on it; it clearly is instinctive, and probably things like manners are also at play. Tony isn't sure, all he knows is that there are actual Sentinel classes on how to approach newly bonded Sentinels and how to handle it when they are the ones newly bonded and being approached by another Sentinel. It's an attempt to apply the restraints of civilization on instinctive responses Sentinels have always struggled with. For the most part it works, but again, it depends on the Sentinel.

Once politeness has been satisfied, Loki looks at Tony and asks him whether he wishes to go. Tony does, so they go back home for their lunch break. This time they don't spend it with sex; they actually have a proper meal with vitamins, and then they laze around on the sofa a little. Loki listens with half an ear as Tony tries to explain GQ to him while putting his hands all over his Guide with non-sexy intentions. They could become sexy intentions, but they're both aware of the time frame and neither of them makes any overtures.

When they return to the Center exactly to the place they left from, Marco is waiting for them withThomas and Sandrine, as she informs them, already in the testing lab. Despite the smooth meeting earlier they're still being careful about surprising Loki with another Sentinel.

"Are you aware what the Sentinel specific tests entail?" Marco asks as she leads them into the testing lab, a simple, if Sentinel-proof room containing some machinery as required.

"Yes," Loki nods. "The material provided by the Center has been informative." It really has been, as it needed to; Tony hasn't ever been there for Sentinel tests. He'd been taught how they're conducted, but he'd never been the sort of Guide that would be asked to be present to help calm an unbonded Sentinel. Then again, few unbonded Guides are.

"Very well. Do you have a preference which sense you want to start with?"

Loki does not, so they start easy, with touch. While Tony remains in a room next to the test lab, allowed to watch through an insulated window (that's more for his Sentinel's comfort than his own), Loki gets to touch fields of plastic on a large plastic sheet. He has to tell what shape is in each field, and the plastic's surface gets less and less uneven. To prevent even the possibility of Loki using sight to aid him, they're using a special table with two tabletops; one about twenty centimeters above the other, the sheet in between.

"He's doing good," Thomas says as they watch. Sandrine is with Marco in the lab; without Tony there, her presence wouldn't put Loki on edge but if she were with Tony and Thomas, Loki likely wouldn't be able to concentrate properly.

The test concluded, Loki gets a short break before they do the hearing test. For this, they first test Loki's range by having him hear very deep to very high notes until he physically can't hear them anymore, and then they test the volume, which includes how much Loki is able to dial his senses down. After that Loki receives another break before they do the taste test. This, they have to modify a little because it turns out that Loki isn't familiar with some of the flavors – morons, they could've predicted that if they had used their brains a little. In the end they test whether Loki can tell if there is salty or sweet flavoring in the water, at levels most people would just consider it normal water, not flavored at all. This is followed by the sight test – pretty self-explanatory – and then the smell test, which uses a mouth and nose mask and a little bit of trial and error again because Loki isn't familiar with all smells either. (He surprises them by breaking them down into "something organic" and "something poisonous" and so on. His definitions are a little unexpected for people who've never had to look at the smells from the perspective of someone who's never smelled them before.)

Throughout the testing they keep making sure that Loki is doing okay and not in danger of his senses becoming overwhelmed and Loki doesn't look like it's overall too bad, but Tony still has to sit on his hands and chew on his lower lip so as not to jump up and burst into the room, especially when a wrinkle starts to appear on Loki's forehead that looks like a headache. As soon as they decide the tests concluded, Tony jumps up and makes a beeline for his Sentinel, bursting out of the room he stayed in. The door to the test lab opens on its own, Loki standing behind it, and Tony does his very best not to jump him like the needy, clingy sort of Guide he never wanted to be, but it's difficult.

Loki has no qualms about reaching out for Tony and pulling him close, pressing a kiss to his forehead. Troubled frown easing, he says firmly, "I did not like that."

Tony doesn't bother replying, just buries his face in Loki's neck for a moment and breathes in. Loki smells of their laundry detergent and himself, and Tony can see why he finds the breathing thing calming. "So," he eventually says, mildly embarrassed and annoyed with himself for it – they're newly bonded, his behavior is entirely normal even if strictly speaking it isn't rational. "How did you do?"

"How would I know?" Eyes turning heavenwards, Loki herds Tony towards the table he was seated at. Marco and Sandrine are still there, quietly discussing their findings.

"You did well," Sandrine tells Loki once they've sat down, Tony scooting his chair close to Loki who is keeping one hand on him even as he focuses on the other Sentinel. "Your sight and sound are off the scale high, actually; your hearing range is incredible. The rest of your senses are in the high upper range of average."

"The question is how much of that is due to you being a Sentinel and what's due to your not being human," Marco involves herself. "If we had someone of your species to perform the same tests for us we might gain an inkling of what's average for your species, but to truly achieve that we would need far more than one person."

"A highly unlikely scenario," Loki comments. "Not the least of which because my circumstances are so highly unusual as to be unique." He doesn't elaborate, and though they're clearly curious, neither Marco nor Sandrine ask.

"This just leaves us in the same situation as all other tests involving you," Marco eventually points out with a slight "what can you do?" sort of shrug. "Once we've done these tests a couple of times we can start to establish a baseline tailored especially for you."

Loki shrugs as well, expression placid. "I would not even be here if it weren't for my Guide."

Okay, Loki's in a bit of a bad mood. Tony leans in until he's practically plastered to Loki's side, hoping that will settle Loki a little. He's clearly not happy having been separated from Tony the way he was, still able to see him but not hear him, what with the test lab's insulation. "And because you think the SGC is a good organization."

Loki huffs, but agrees. "I do appreciate what it has done for you and by proxy, me."

Nobody comments on that, and shortly later Tony and Loki are alone because Marco excused herself to input her data and Sandrine wants to check on Thomas. Not that he needed it, but it's obvious Loki needs some time to unwind and it's going to be easier without anybody there. Though Tony isn't going to delude himself into thinking they aren't being monitored on the security feed.

Not letting that stop him, he climbs into Loki's lap and wraps his arms around his Sentinel's shoulders, leans in for a short kiss before wordlessly pulling Loki close, encouraging him to put his head in the crook of his neck the way he likes it. They stay like that for a while, Tony held tight by Loki's arms around him and holding him back just as tightly while they ground each other. Tony doesn't even feel awkward about their neediness because neither Marco nor Sandrine had reacted like it was weird and that, more than a bunch of people telling him that it's normal, helped. Which is vexing, in a way, because Tony just wants to not care about other people's opinion on him, but as always, with this aspect of his being he's never managed.

Eventually the two of them return, Marco first, shortly followed by Sandrine. Tony climbs off Loki's lap and settles back in his chair as they prepare Loki to go through the tests again, but this time with Tony at his side. Up close the tests aren't any more interesting to Tony, but he loves watching Loki, the way he goes still and alert as he focuses on one sense at a time. Tony keeps silent, not wanting to break Loki's concentration, but immediately once the touch test is done Loki puts his hand on his knee so, figuring it's okay, Tony twines their fingers and keeps Loki's hand between his.

"Very well," Marco says once the last test is done. "As expected, you did better on all the tests."

"To be honest I'm not sure the sight test is sufficient for you," Sandrine involves herself. "Our tech is limited and you didn't seem to struggle much even on the most difficult level."

Loki shrugs. "I didn't seem all that difficult to me." Arrogant little shit. Tony has a badass guy whose sight is so good it's off the scale; that's almost as hot as how smug Loki is about it.

"Exactly," Sandrine says dryly. "We should probably repeat the sight test once we've refined our methods."

"Perhaps with a field test, but for now, this will be sufficient," Marco decides. "Are you experiencing any difficulties?"

"A slight headache, nothing more," Loki admits.

Marco nods and makes a note on her tablet. "It will probably go away within the hour. Do you zone out at all?"

"Not since Tony," Loki immediately replies. "I used to, especially when I was younger, but over the years I learned how to prevent it. It would still happen, but not often."

Marco nods, making another note on her tablet. "That's good for you," she says without any trace of sarcasm. "Some Sentinels have a very hard time coming out of zone outs, especially the longer they remain unbonded. If you hadn't learned to adapt so well, you might not be here today. It's a commendation to your adaptability, strength and resilience."

Clearly not expecting a response to that – not that it seems like Loki has any to offer anyway, rendered silent as he is – she rises, makes sure they know the details for their appointment tomorrow and leaves.

Without a word, Tony puts a hand in the small of Loki's back and Loki teleports them back to the apartment. He says no word about what Marco has said to him, but Tony knows he will remember – a near perfect stranger telling him he's strong, that sort of thing sticks. Tony doesn't bring it up either, not feeling the need, and they spend a quiet evening, going to bed early to be fit for the last day of tests.

When they arrive at Marco's office the next day at half past eight, Marco is the only one waiting for them. After the necessary small talk is out of the way – good morning, how are you – she leads them towards the stairs and up two flights of them to an area Tony has never entered before. That in addition with how nebulous the descriptions for the third day tests (a "pair test", the brochures say, where the mated pair's responses on an instinctual level are tested) makes him very, very curious, and a little wary.

Marco points towards the door leading out of the staircase, but makes no move to open it. Instead, she finally explains. "Past this door is a room. It's not under surveillance and nobody will be in there. However, this entire floor is isolated both for Sentinels and Guides, which means that as soon as you enter this room you'll be virtually cut off in from the rest of the building and the outside world. There is no insulation within the floor though. There's one other door in the room leading out onto the floor, which is where you will find your herd."

Oh, fuck him sideways. Tony has had a herd once – or rather, he and a couple of Guides from his year that were lumped together as a group shared a herd shortly before they "graduated" what's colloquially and erroneously referred to as "Guide school", meaning the intensive classes Guides have to pass in their teens.

"Our herd," Loki repeats, nonplussed.

"A bunch of people, volunteers," Tony provides. "We're supposed to, well... what?"

"Respond to them in any way you see fit," Marco not-explains. Seeing their expressions she shrugs a little helplessly. "I can hardly offer you instructions on how to act and react. The entire floor is under surveillance, barring the bathrooms of course, and you may always return to the room behind this door, nobody else will enter it and as I said, it's not under surveillance. The room is not part of the test. Though really, calling this phase a "test" is a misnomer; there is no way to fail. A few behavioral scientists will merely assess your responses, which will help both you and the Center in categorizing you so if your help is needed, we won't give you tasks unsuited to your dynamics."

"You've set up stuff to happen, though," Tony says, resigned. The last time he did this, seventeen and solely fed up with all the Guide stuff with his Sentinel not in sight, he had hated everything. It hadn't helped that his shields had, due to puberty and his state of mind, been a little off so his feelings had leaked over some people. Nobody had left that test happy.

"Of course." Marco shrugs. "Nothing bad – this is a controlled setting and the results it will bear will be limited, but we can hardly set up a situation to truly test you." She means extreme situations with high spikes in emotions like fear or anger; there is no way to artificially create them and any other way would be inhumane. So, really, this won't be too bad. Just tedious, having to spend a couple of hours under intense scrutiny and the pressure of knowing their every reaction will be closely watched and assessed.

"Let's get this over with then," Tony sighs, looking at Loki. "Any questions?"

"I'm still unclear about the parameters of this... _phase_."

"Basically, they'll have a bunch of people who volunteered on that floor and we have to, well, guard them, sort of. Make sure they're okay, if we want to. Do what our instincts tell us. That sort of thing." Shrugging, Tony glances at Marco to see whether she has anything to add, but she doesn't appear to.

"The terminology is confusing as well," Loki opines. "Herd is not a complimentary name, isn't it?"

"It goes back to the whole instincts thing. Calling them our pack would imply that some of them have higher ranks than the others. Herd establishes us as the ones with the responsibility and them as the ones being taken care of. It's not a realistic scenario," Tony quickly adds because he can suddenly see how this would sound from the outside. "We're not actually supposed to guide and guard mundanes. But evolutionary speaking, that's probably where we – as in, Guides and Sentinels – come from."

"Interesting." Loki glances at Marco. "How long will this test last?"

"A few hours, or until you want it to stop. You can take breaks in that room, or you can put an end to it at any time. It won't give you negative points or anything; as I said, this isn't actually a test, there is no way to fail. This is merely to categorize you."

It's impossible to tell what Loki thinks about that. He simply nods again and looks at Tony to see if he's ready before heading to the door and opening it.

The room behind, as Marco said, is empty. It contains a sofa, a couple of Sentinel-safe refreshments on a table and that's pretty much it. Loki looks around quickly before turning around to Tony, waiting until the door falls shut behind him to say, "I don't like it."

Tony isn't surprised. He isn't happy about it, but he isn't surprised. He bites his lower lip and thinks about how to respond. "It's a pretty common test, every Guide and every Sentinel does it at least once in their life – apparently twice, if they bond."

"I do not cherish the thought of being observed like a test subject," Loki says archly, "nor do I like being put in charge of a group of strangers and being expected to care for them."

"But that's just the point, you aren't," Tony replies. "You're not expected to care for them if you don't. You're only expected to act like you want to, like your instincts tell you – same goes for me, really. They do this to figure out what they could need our help for, if they ever do need us that is. Some mated pairs are super caring, so they put them in a position where that's needed – like, picture a disaster scenario. Some earthquake or tsunami happened, some sort of higher power event – that's what we call them, it's just a natural disaster, not actually some higher power coming to mess things up for us, though I suppose that could happen as well. Anyways, everything's a mess, and they call in Sentinels and Guides to help because mundanes naturally respond to us and feel safer if we're there. When life is okay nobody notices, but in situations like that we've been scientifically proven, inasmuch as that is possible in any case, to help by our mere presence. But still, we aren't supposed to just sit around and look pretty. Some pairs, the super caring type, they'd put in nurseries or with the injured or traumatized, in shelters or something, to help out there and make people feel better. Others, the ones that aren't very into hugging people and guarding babies or something, they rather put in charge of looking for survivors. Or of organizing something. Or even of law and order, because sometimes people panic and do things they wouldn't do under normal circumstances. But that's why the Center needs to know where we fall on the behavioral scale. It's, by the way, why I was never asked to do stuff like this, because I'm not the naturally nurturing and caring type of Guide, even if all Guides tend towards that end of the scale."

"You did a test like this before," Loki concludes, mulling over all Tony just told him. He at least doesn't look like he's a moment away from bristling like a hedgehog anymore.

"Yeah, in my late teens, when I was done with the intensive training classes." Shrugging, Tony briefly recounts the story: "Me and three other Guides from my classes were put in a group and put in charge of a herd. There was this guy who immediately beelined for the children, because he felt he needed to make sure they were okay. I didn't. Might have, but he was there already, so there was no need. I mostly just stuck around and watched what the others were doing."

Loki purses his lips. "What did the members of your herd do?"

"Just normal stuff. Read, talk, watch TV, play games. They didn't really watch us – they're not supposed to, they're supposed to act normal. Some people got into a fight, I'm still not sure if it was staged or not. But, well. It was pretty uneventful all around." Shrugging again, Tony leans a little towards Loki and curls his fingers in his shirt. "If you really don't want to do it we won't."

"But it would help," Loki sighs. "There is no need to convince me, I've already reconciled with the fact that I'm indebted to an organization I didn't even know exists a month ago. In any case, we can always leave."

"Yeah, whenever we want to. We can come back here or leave altogether," Tony nods and smiles at his Sentinel, glad that Loki doesn't have an issue with doing this. It's not like Tony enjoyed playing the SGC's advocate – he does believe that they owe them, but that doesn't mean he's a huge fan of them either. What they've been asked to do so far was acceptable, in Tony's opinion, especially considering what they've been getting in return, and that's only taking into account the protective laws the SGC pushed into place that covered Tony and Loki's asses, if they didn't outright save them.

"Very well." With a put upon sigh that's mostly for show, Loki leans in and kisses Tony. "Are you ready, then?"

"Yeah. Let's do this." Tony walks to the door and waits for Loki's nod before opening it.

They come into a rather large room that's pretty noisy. In one corner a couple of kids are assembled and busy being loud, in another a TV is playing and some people, mostly teenagers, are watching cartoons. The other side of the room is mostly occupied with people cooking and socialising, there is a kitchen corner and a bunch of tables set out. All in all, Tony figures it's less than thirty people, which isn't really a lot but after spending a month in seclusion, it's enough for both Tony and Loki. Tony has to firm his shields and put some distance between himself and them, mentally speaking, and Loki goes still for a brief moment, eyes flicking through the room as he assesses their "herd". "Fourteen adults," he says after a moment, "eight children of ten years of age or below, five adolescents."

Not that many teenagers, great. Also, Tony is sort of amazed Loki managed to count and categorize them all that quickly.

"Hello," a woman walking past them says. She's holding the hand of a little girl of maybe four years and leads her over to the TV, where she drops her off after a few words. Then she comes back to them and smiles. "We're making brunch, the Center went all out with the food. Would you like any?"

"I smell maple juice," Loki says. "Yes."

She laughs. "There are waffles and pancakes. Hi, I'm Alice." Obviously having been coached, she doesn't move to approach them, though her right hand twitches a little. Common courtesy dictates that you shake stranger's hands upon meeting, but approaching a newly bonded Sentinel and Guide like that isn't a good idea.

"Hi, I'm Tony." Tony smirks and shrugs because yes, she most likely knows that. People who volunteer to be herds aren't told who they will meet and the Center will have very carefully vetted everyone currently present, but it's probably neigh on impossible that they didn't at least suspect who they'd be playing herd for. The timing is too perfect for the thought not to have occurred at one point. Plus, and this isn't Tony being arrogant, it's highly unlikely people don't recognize him on sight.

"I am Loki," his Sentinel introduces himself, putting his hand in the small of Tony's back for just a moment, like he's trying to reassure himself Tony is really there or remind Tony that Loki is there.

"Nice to meet you," Alice says politely and they wander over to the kitchen area, where Loki chooses a table and seat from which he can oversee pretty much the whole room. "So, how are you? Uh, if I may ask. We're not supposed to ask private questions so if that's private, just ignore that."

"Are there rules for people like you?" Loki asks curiously. "Volunteers. I still think herd is a less than complimentary term."

"Well, this isn't real, so I guess most people aren't bothered. Except for anti-Sentinel/Guide groups, but they're against everything, so whatever." She shrugs. "And yes, of course there are rules. We have to sign non-disclosure agreements, and there are rules like how we're not allowed to ask private questions, of course, though with the kids that's always a bit of a gamble. But talking to the press at any point ever about what happens here is strictly forbidden. Then there are the rules about how to approach a bonded pair, of course. But really, everyone here knows that. I mean, nobody who doesn't know how to conduct themselves is going to make it past the screening anyway, and besides, most people who volunteer for these tests have a Guide or Sentinel in the family somewhere. We're allies, basically."

"Do you have a Sentinel or Guide family member?" That's a bit of a private question, some would even consider it rude, but Tony doesn't say anything; he doesn't want to interfere with Loki talking to Alice. This is the first time Loki is talking basically to a complete outsider, someone who is not associated with Tony or with the SGC.

Alice's lip twitches. "My husband is a Guide, actually. No, it's not complicated." Right. It probably is complicated as hell.

Eying her for a second, Loki changes topics abruptly. "Is there a reason why two of the children are separate from this group?"

Smile fading, Alice frowns. "What do you mean?" She turns her head to look at the children. "Who's missing?"

Loki shrugs elaborately. "How would I know their names? Though I'm starting to suspect they left without permission. One of them just suggested they hide in case they encounter anybody."

"Yeah, nobody is supposed to leave this room," Alice says. "This wasn't supposed to happen." Yet, Tony bets. "Are they okay?"

"...yes. Perhaps you should send someone to retrieve them? Also, one of them appears to have an older brother who she fears will come looking for her. His name is Corey."

Recognition floods Alice's face. "Oh, that must be Sandra's daughter, she mentioned having a son- most of us pretty much just met, you see- Sandra! Could you come over here for a second?"

A small woman with wild, red hair looks up and frowns with confusion, but immediately walks up to them. "What's up? Hi, by the way, I'm Sandra."

"Hi Sandra." Tony waves a little, not seeing the point in introducing himself again.

"Your daughter has absconded," Loki informs her without bothering to tell her his name. "Apparently, she wishes to explore without her brother following her every step."

Sandra blinks for a second, then frowns, turning around to peer at the half of the room filled with kids. Upon not spotting her daughter she frowns harder. "I told her explicitly not to leave this room! Where did she go? She's with Nathalie, right? Harold's daughter?"

"I know neither Nathalie nor Harold, but she appears to be with another girl," Loki reports, growing exasperated. "Are you going to collect them? I don't care either way but I understand children aren't supposed to remain unsupervised for any length of time."

"I hear that's not a good idea, yeah," Tony says with some amusement. It's sort of funny watching Loki be all snotty and unimpressed with people.

"Can you tell me where they are?" Sandra asks, finally starting to look a little worried.

Obviously Loki can't, because he doesn't know the layout of the building, but instead of pointing this out he merely points into a direction, pretty much straight at the wall opposite the one with the door Tony and Loki came through. There is a door at the other end of the room – two doors, in fact, but that's not where Loki points. "They probably took this exit."

Sandra looks at Loki, then at the wall where he's pointing, figures out that that's closer to the door closer to the children than the one by the kitchen and takes off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say, I'm really very sorry about taking so long with this? I don't have any proper excuse except for how massively insecure I feel about this story, on top of some other stuff. I'll definitely be faster with the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

"Honestly?" Alice says once Sandra is gone. "I think something isn't entirely okay there. All Sandra would talk about was her son Corey, which is why I knew immediately who you meant. Carey didn't look too happy to be here, really."

"You're joking," Tony says after a moment of stunned disbelief. "Corey and Carey?" It's astounding how some people just cheerfully set their children up for mocking from the start.

Eyes going wide with judgment, Alice nods meaningfully. "I know, right? Corey is a Sentinel, apparently. Well, I say apparently, but what I mean is that Sandra made sure to mention it. Every second sentence or so."

It's not entirely surprising that Alice is a bit of a gossip – she did approach them pretty quickly, after all, she was bound to be the curious sort of person – but Tony doesn't care; he's too entertained by how little Loki cares and how little he does to hide it and how much Alice fails to notice.

Suddenly Loki huffs. "She's going into the entirely wrong direction." He gets up and walks away without another word. So much for not caring about strangers, though Tony isn't sure how much of it is care and how much of it is Loki trying to prove that he's in control of his "herd". Tony grimaces a little – inwardly, that is. It wasn't hard to figure out that pride matters a lot to Loki, which naturally means he can be a little competitive. Still, just getting up and leaving Tony here without a word isn't the most pleasant experience; for a moment it's like the crowd seems to get larger, busier, a baby's crying somewhere gets more ear-piercing, but then Tony manages to get ahold of himself again. He's being overly dramatic.

"He's good at this," Alice comments once Loki has left the room, as if that means he can't hear them anymore. And she should be aware of just how well Loki can hear because he's clearly been paying attention to Carey and her friend and also to Sandra, all of whom aren't in the room. But either she hasn't drawn the correct conclusions or doesn't care – Tony is inclined to believe the former.

"Good at what?" Tony asks dryly. "Paying attention?"

Will she actually get it? "Yes, exactly!" Alice nods eagerly. "I've seen Sentinels who were overwhelmed just stepping into the room. I mean there are lots of people here and the kids aren't exactly quiet." She winces comically at a particularly shrill shriek from the kid's corner. "But all of them, even the ones who didn't get overwhelmed, needed a couple of minutes to acclimatise. Loki didn't seem like he needed that at all." And, nope, she clearly didn't catch Tony's hint.

"He's very good at control," Tony replies.

Her eyes get wide as she detects the possibility of receiving insider information, only to turn disappointed when Tony doesn't elaborate.

Smiling sweetly, Tony turns to look at the people who are cooking. "So, can we get some pancakes? If I go over there it'll be like the parting of the Red Sea, just saying. Things might get burned." Nobody's going to want to risk touching the Guide, especially with the Sentinel not here. It's a reassuring thought, but doesn't soothe the discomfort of being left alone in the middle of a crowd. Nevermind that it's their herd, not a random crowd, or that Loki very definitely must be keeping a close ear on Tony and could teleport to his side in the fraction of a second. Instinct isn't very rational most of the time.

That hint, Alice actually catches. "Oh! Of course." She jumps up and walks over to the person making the pancakes. They have a brief discussion which somehow ends with Alice ending up manning the frying pan while the guy comes over, carrying one stacked plate and a bottle of maple sirup.

"Hi," the guy says. "You good? Alice is a little bad at keeping her curiosity to herself, figured I'd come over and save you."

Tony smiles wryly. "Thanks. That's actually why I sent her over."

The guy laughs. "She said something about how you're worried people are going to touch you."

"Nobody's going to." Tony rolls his eyes. "I mean, I'm not gonna try diving into a crowd just yet, especially without Loki present, but-"

Loki chooses that moment to appear by the table, holding one girl's hand, who is holding her friend's hand, who is holding Sandra's hand. Their sudden appearance makes everybody in the vicinity who saw it happen (and though they pretend not to, they were paying attention to Tony) freeze and stare. Apparently uncaring, Loki completely ignores them in favor of raising one eyebrow at Tony. Sandra is looking a little wide-eyed and shell-shocked, but Carey and her friend – was it Nathalie? – are kids and just think that the whole teleportation thing is pretty cool.

Also, Carey is a Guide, something nobody mentioned before, and a part in Tony bristles at the fact that she's touching Loki. But for fuck's sake, she's just a little kid, and also Loki lets go of her pretty much immediately.

"-I'm not actually worried," Tony finishes, meeting Loki's eyes.

"...yes," pancake guy says after a brief moment, voice remarkably calm. "I wouldn't be either, if I had a Sentinel who could do that." Slowly, everyone starts moving again, making a concerted effort to appear unaffected with the blatant life science fiction happening in front of their noses.

Loki's lips quirk up, on the verge of commenting, but then Carey captures his attention by asking, eyes wide, "Can you take us to Disneyland?"

"I do not know this Land of Disney," Loki tells her earnestly, casually leaning against the back of Tony's chair and putting his hand on the back of his neck, warm and very calming.

"There are lots of princes and princesses!" Carey tells him eagerly, eyes going impossibly wider.

"Got a prince right here," Tony points out, pushing the plate of pancakes towards Loki a little. "And we have pancakes."

Loki nods. "Truly, if it's princes and princesses you wish to see, I can tell you right now, their company tends to be terribly dull." Reclaiming his seat, Loki takes the bottle of syrup the guy thoughtfully brought over and starts pouring it over the pancakes.

Carey gapes at Loki. "You're a prince?!" Her voice turns high and shrill and Tony has no idea how Loki isn't wincing because now with him sitting, she's pretty much shrieking into his ear.

"Verily," Loki confirms. "My brother is a prince as well, and he is terribly boring. All he wants to do all day is slay monsters and celebrate."

 _Oh_. Now Tony gets it. Loki is playing with her. That really shouldn't be so adorable, but somehow it is, and it also makes Tony relax a little. He's not paying attention to another Guide, he's playing with a little girl.

By this point, Carey pretty much has hearts in her eyes and clambers onto the chair next to Loki's. "Do you slay monsters too?"

"I try not to," Loki says seriously. "Some monsters are just misunderstood, after all. But on occasion, it becomes necessary."

"Like Stitch!" Nathalie's friend says breathlessly. Up until this point she's apparently been stunned speechless; Tony thought she just didn't have anything to say.

"Carey," Sandra involves herself a little helplessly, "you shouldn't bother Sentinel Loki. Sentinels are important."

Ah. Tony is starting to have a suspicion here, and when Loki glances at her before turning back to Carey and telling her that Guides are more important, Tony gets it. Alice already pretty much told them that Sandra thinks her son Carey the Sentinel hung the moon, and Loki clearly doesn't like the favoritism, especially in light of the fact that Carey is a Guide.

"Really?" Carey is asking Loki, eyes doubtful.

"Of course," Loki says. He's entirely serious too. "What use is a Sentinel without their Guide? I would certainly be lost without mine."

Now Carey's focus turns to Tony. She blinks. "I've seen you on TV!"

"Probably," Tony nods. "Cameras just like my face a lot."

She giggles. "My mom said it's a miracle you found your Sentinel because you're old."

Sandra flushes and stammers, but Tony ignores her.

"I am old," he agrees sagely. "How old are you?"

"Seven and a half," Carey replies. "Loki says I'm a Guide."

Tony winks at her. "I know. And your brother is a Sentinel?"

Her face darkens and he has to suppress a grimace; really, he should've remembered not to bring that up. "Yes," Carey confirms morosely. "He follows me everywhere. It's really annoying."

"But do you know why he follows you everywhere?" Loki says. "Because you are precious. Which doesn't mean it's acceptable behavior and you should tell him that."

She brightens again. "I will! Thank you!" Suddenly she lunges forwards to hug Loki. Her mother goes tense but Loki doesn't seem to mind at all; he merely pats her back, then lets her go and leans into Tony's side while she takes her friend's hand and runs away. The contact is reassuring, but what Tony would like a lot better if he didn't get defensive over a little kid. That'd be super.

Loki waits until she's gone to turn to Sandra and say, very coolly, "Preferring one child over the other is unacceptable behavior."

Paling, Sandra swallows and nods. "Of course."

She looks like she's worried Loki will jump on her and rip her throat out any second. Tony sighs, takes the fork and knife and cuts a piece out of the stack of pancakes. Without a word Loki takes the fork Tony offers him and tries a bite, chewing slowly and thoughtfully. While she believes him distracted, Sandra takes the opportunity to back away.

Rolling his eyes, Tony looks at Loki. "Was it necessary to scare her?"

"It certainly wasn't necessary for her to make her daughter feel unimportant because she considered her less important than her eldest," Loki replies.

"No, that's mean, though they probably didn't know she's a Guide. I mean, Guides and Sentinels aren't supposed to participates in these tests, somebody's gotta be shitting bricks somewhere over that one right now," Tony says. "I'm just wondering why you're so pissed at her. When we got here you were all, I don't give a fuck about these people."

"I do not," Loki returns archly. "One has to make exceptions for children sometimes, I suppose." He scowls briefly at his pancakes. "Also, my... the people who raised me certainly did it in much the same manner as that woman is raising her children. It's an atrocity."

Ah, so that's it. "Yeah, I agree." Leaning in, Tony nuzzles Loki's neck briefly. "You certainly made Carey feel better. That was pretty sweet."

Loki scowls again, but it's more of a front than anything this time. "Sweet is very much the last adjective most people would apply to me."

"Well, I am applying it," Tony replies. "I got a couple more, but they're not really fit for company." And, right, that's what they're in right now. Clearing his throat, he moves a little away from Loki. "Stupid tests."

"When they advised us of the surveillance, did they mean they listen in as well?" Loki asks curiously.

"Dunno, but it wouldn't surprise me." Tony shrugs. "Also, I'm thinking... what the fuck is wrong with that baby?"

The baby has been crying for some time, but Tony had so far managed to ignore it. Some woman was there anyway, holding and bouncing it, but that's supposed to calm them down, and the baby so far hasn't. By this point the woman's distress has increased to a level where Tony, even as shielded as he is, can't help but notice. He could ignore it, yes, but she sort of looks like she's on the verge of crying herself and that's certainly not going to calm the baby down.

"It's teething," Loki says without looking. "This sometimes happens when they do that. It's tired and cranky and in pain and the mother isn't helping."

Tony sighs. Time to do his Guide thing. He wonders just how planned this was. "I'll be right back."

It takes the woman a moment to notice him approaching, she's too preoccupied, but when she does, her eyes widen. "I'm so sorry!" she cries. "I've been trying to calm him down for half an hour, he was supposed to sleep through this, but he just won't!"

"Maybe it's the noise," Tony points out dryly. "Loki says he's teething?"

Her eyes widen. "How did he-" her eyes dart to his Sentinel. "That's right. I probably shouldn't have brought him here but it's been getting better and I thought it would be okay, the Center said it'd be okay!"

"They probably figured that if he doesn't sleep it'd be a good opportunity for the test," Tony shrugs. "So, I'm a Guide. I can calm him down, if you want to. Also, you should try to calm yourself down too, how's he supposed to be calm if you aren't?"

Tears rise in her eyes, making Tony grimace inwardly. Okay, so he could've put that a little nicer, probably. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen," she says, voice trembling.

"It's really no big deal," Tony replies, trying to make his voice calm and soothing. "Nobody minds. Babies sometimes do this, and I have a feeling most people here had a baby at one point, so they'd know."

She nods quickly, eyes darting back and forth between her baby and Tony for a moment. "Would you... you're just making him feel calm, right?"

"Yes." Nevermind that Tony has never done this before, he's a Guide, so he has the inherent ability, and technically he knows how to do this. "I'm just hoping the SGC won't take this as a sign that I want to be put in a nursery."

She smiles nervously and hands the wailing baby over. The little boy isn't impressed at the treatment and for a moment Tony has no idea how the fuck he's supposed to find his calm with a shrieking baby in his arms, but then he takes a deep breath and reminds himself that even most unbonded Guides can do this, so he certainly should be able to do it too. He settles the baby the way she had, leaning on his chest with its head on his shoulder, closes his eyes and lets his breath out slowly, letting his awareness rise. The mother's distress is like a distracting beacon, even more so than the baby's, so he opens one eye and says, "Want me to calm you down as well?" He can't without her permission. Well, he could, but it's against the law and Tony feels absolutely no inclination to non-consensually soothe somebody's feelings.

After a brief moment of hesitation she nods, hastily wiping her eyes and smiling nervously. "Sorry."

Ignoring that, Tony closes his eyes again and slows his breathing. He's supposed to go into that calm, tranquil state of mind he enters when he's meditating, but that's easier said than done with a squirming, noisy baby in his arm and its distressed mother right in front of him. Instead of trying to ignore them he closes himself off from both, separates his mind completely from the outside world and just listens to his own breathing. When he figures he's calm enough he loosens the tight hold of his shields and lets the calm out, first enveloping the baby, then the mother. It doesn't smother their distress so much as it seeps in between the cracks of it, lowering the sharp spike just far enough that they can do the rest themselves. It's not like they _want_ to be distressed; in fact, the baby boy really, really wants to sleep. But first the pain distracted him, and then he had cried himself into a state, not helped by the mother's fussy attempts to quiet him down. But as soon as Tony's calm reaches and soothes him the boy pretty much falls asleep on the spot, between one breath and the next.

When he opens his eyes the mother is looking at him, calm and bright with relief. "Thank you."

A little embarrassed, Tony shrugs and carefully hands the baby back to her. "It was no problem." And it wasn't. It's weird; all his life Tony thought of himself as a lot of other things first and a Guide second at best, and not just because as a Guide he wasn't even second best or because he didn't have a Sentinel. It was because he didn't want to be defined by something he had no influence or control over, when his life was already overshadowed by his father's image. And now here he is, easily doing things Guides do and not minding in the least.

Maybe, he muses as he wanders back to Loki, maybe it's because he's so old comparably speaking, because he had half a lifetime to make sure people knew him for something else than being Howard Stark's Guide son. When people hear the name Tony Stark they don't think of him being a Guide, or of his father; both of those things come second, maybe even third place. They think Iron Man, Stark Industries, maybe what they most recently read or heard about him in the gossip columns. Which, granted, right now would probably be about his having found his Sentinel. So he needs to make sure they remember the other parts, because while now he's more okay with them thinking about his being a Guide, he still doesn't want it to be the first thing someone thinks when they hear his name.

But, them thinking about his having found Loki? That's really not a bad thing.

"So you see," Loki is saying to his fascinated audience made up of Carey, her friend Nathalie, some other boy and another girl around their age and three parents hovering close by without interfering, "this is why refined sugar is the best thing mankind has begotten."

"What does begotten mean?" The boy asks, wide-eyed. It's like every word out of Loki's mouth is gospel.

"Produced," Loki replies. "Made."

"Really?" Tony asks, amused. "Sugar is the best thing on Earth?"

"Refined sugar," Loki corrects. "Terribly unhealthy, but you really don't realize how easy it makes things. There are some things honey or raw sugar just don't flavor well."

"Why don't you have sugar on your planet, Mr. Loki?" Carey asks curiously. "How do you bake cakes?"

"How do you make icing?" The boy babbles breathlessly, eyes wide as saucers. Clearly, the functionality of alien life without sugar exceeds his imagination.

"Not very well," Loki replies earnestly, making them all giggle.

"I think Iron Man is cooler than sugar," the third girl pipes up, a stubborn pull to her mouth. "Iron Man saves lives!"

Tony is terribly flattered. "Thank you," he emphasizes.

"But can Iron Man also make cakes?" Carey asks. She's really stuck on the cakes.

"I don't know, can you?" Loki turns to Tony and raises one eyebrow.

Suddenly, Tony finds himself under the intense scrutiny of four children and his Sentinel. "Yes." It's a total lie but he can hardly disappointed the little girl sticking up for him, can he?

Loki's eyes are knowing, but he doesn't say anything as he turns back to the kids. "I am willing to concede that Iron Man potentially might be as good as refined sugar."

"Aww, thank you, darling," Tony says, finally claiming his seat back. Immediately he spots two drawings, one of three figures that look suspiciously like a very cheerful Loki with wings holding two little girls' hands, and a second of what could conceivably be Loki as well, slaying what might be a dragon. Or something that vomits red stuff on Loki. Which isn't entirely unlikely, Tony has seen a lot in his college years. "What's this?"

"Sentinel Loki is a prince," the boy, apparently the mastermind behind the second drawing, lisps earnestly. "Carey said so. Princes fight dragons."

"And this is me, and Sentinel Loki, and Nathalie," Carey eagerly explains, pointing towards her own drawing. "We're running away!"

"Without me?" Tony puts a hand on his arc reactor, affecting a wounded expression. "I'm hurt."

The third little girl's eyes widen. "You're running away with me!" She storms off for the table with the crayons.

" _No_!" the boy shrieks, running after her. "Iron Man is _mine_!"

"Is not!" Carey exclaims and takes off after them, Nathalie in her tracks.

"Uh, sorry about that." One of the three adults – parents, probably – that have been hovering around steps up to the table. "They didn't bother you, did they?"

Loki sends him a look. "Did I seem bothered?"

"No, no," the guy hastens to assure him. "You're very good with children."

"I've been around a few in my lifetime," Loki says, somewhat amused. "Though the last time I was on Midgard parents did their best to keep their offspring away from me."

"Might have something to do with the stories they're telling about you." Tony grins when Loki sends him an annoyed look. He'd read up on Midgard's legends about him and had been very much not amused.

"Midgard?" the guy asks curiously. "Uh, can I sit?"

"Sure," Loki says wryly. "There are nine realms connected through Yggdrasil. Midgard is among them."

"Norse mythology," a woman says eagerly, stepping up to the table as well. "Hi, I'm Amanda. So, how much of it is real?"

"Hardly anything," Loki waves her off.

"Don't mention the horse," Tony advises, earning himself a _look_.

Amanda raises both hands and quickly shakes her head when the guy sends her a curious look. "But what I'm really wondering... you're not from Earth, correct? And your name is Loki, like the god Loki in Norse mythology, which suggests that around the Viking's time over a thousand years ago, aliens like you came to Earth. Is Loki a common name, or is it a title or something? Does your kind visit Earth often? I mean physically there's really no difference I can tell, so we wouldn't know, right?"

Nosy, though Tony can't say he's surprised. After all, _aliens_.

Loki sighs. "My name is Loki because I _am_ Loki. There is only one Loki. And no, we don't really come to Midgard often. When we do, you generally don't know, though that's neither by intent nor by design."

Amanda's mouth drops open. "You're the _god_ Loki?! From Norse myths?!"

Oh, great. Loki just nods, eyes gliding off her towards the kids at the table; the little boy appears to be hogging the red crayons. All three of them. The other kids aren't amused.

"But that means you must be over a thousand years old!" Amanda exclaims.

Tony already has a joke about a lady not talking about her age on his tongue, hoping that it'll take her off-guard enough that she realizes how very much not interested Loki is in this line of conversation, but before he can, Loki answers, calm and uninterested. "The way you count time, yes."

"Uh," the guy says eyes flickering back and forth between Amanda and Loki; he looks discomfited by the revelation but he at least has noticed that Loki isn't comfortable. "You look great for your age." Startled by his own joke he winces and quickly changes topics. "What I've been meaning to ask you, if you don't mind... this was actually for you, Guide Stark. My son is a Guide as well and he hasn't found his Sentinel yet. Granted, he still has time, but I was just wondering, if it's okay, if you could tell me, how you, uh."

"Didn't throw myself off a cliff?" Tony asks, sardonically amused. The guy winces again and Amanda does as well; this isn't a topic anybody is comfortable with. Being aware of statistics is one thing, actually talking about it to a Guide is entirely another. Even if the Guide is bonded, though at least most people have the decency not to bring things like that up in front of unbonded Guides.

"Uh, yeah." The guy shrugs. "Sorry. I mean. I'm just... worried."

Of course he would be. Anybody who knows a Guide who isn't bonded worries. And this really isn't something Tony wants to talk about, but it beats having Amanda interrogate Loki. At least she's silent now, staring at Tony with big calf eyes.

"First of all," Tony starts, because this is a misconception he truly hates, "Guides who can't deal with it any longer aren't weak. Somebody who doesn't know what it's like can never even hope to understand, and honestly, you should be grateful for it." He shrugs, vaguely annoyed until a broad hand settles on his back. Glancing at Loki, he manages a slight smile and reminds himself that this is all in the past. Not that he actually needs the reminder, he's intimately aware at all times. "Some Guides who had the greatest support network in the world still couldn't keep going at one point. And honestly, my support network wasn't anywhere close to that good." He shrugs again. "Really, I don't see how this could help your son any, but the thing is, it was never my number one goal in life to be a bonded Guide. Obviously I still- but I also had other goals. Maybe the distraction helped. Probably not. Keep in mind that Loki isn't one of those Sentinels who slipped through the cracks of the system during the political chaos in Eastern Europe or something. I don't know how that plays into it, but I don't believe that there is anything either your son or you can do that you aren't already aware of. Hopefully, he won't need a support network. If he does, I'm sure you'll do your best and I'm sure he'll do his best, but sometimes even the best isn't enough." Uncomfortable, he looks away. "Sorry."

The guy clears his throat, voice a little raw. "No, don't- I'm sorry for bringing it up. I just worry about him."

"Tony," Loki says. "I do believe Julian finished his drawing for you."

Right, he'll take it. Sending him a weak smile, Tony gets up and briefly touches the back of Loki's neck as he heads over to the kids' table where Carey, Nathalie, the little girl and the boy whose name apparently is Julian are drawing.

"Iron Man, look!" Julian beams a gap-toothed smile at him, holding out his picture with one hand so it curls in on itself and Tony can't see a thing. Taking the paper, he unfolds it and finds a drawing of Iron Man and Julian, presumably, holding hands in a field of flowers. "This is me, and you," Julian explains, "and this is our horse, because other people can have horses too." The horse is a red blob with legs and a tail that stands up like a hedgehog's spikes.

"This is great, Julian, thank you," Tony says earnestly, folding himself onto one of those tiny children sized chairs that make anybody above the age of nine feel like an ungainly giant. "Can you sign it for me? I'd really like to have your autograph."

Julian beams at him and immediately sets to writing his name right next to the sun smiling widely down at the meadow.

"And what are you drawing?" Tony asks the little girl, who appears to be furiously coloring what is possibly Iron Man, except it's pink.

"Iron Man!" the little girl explains. "And red is stupid so you're pink." The hot, angry look she sends towards the rest of the table – the other three kids all have a red crayon, but there are clearly only three available – tells a bit more of that story.

"Well," Tony says slowly, "pink is a pretty cool color. Right?"

"Yes!" Little girl beams at him. "Barbie is pink and Barbie can do anything!"

Tony nods sagely, even though he has no idea what all Barbie can do except be anatomically impossible. "Clearly, pink is a color for winners. Can I keep the drawing?"

"Duh!" Little girl says. "It's for you! But it's not finished yet."

"Can you write your name on it too, when you're finished?" Tony requests. Would be good to know it, he can't keep calling her little girl. Then again, it's not like they'll ever meet again.

Deeply involved in her drawing again, little girl nods, so Tony turns his focus on Carey and Nathalie. The two of them are sharing a picture, and they're each drawing Iron Man, it looks like. "And what are you two drawing? Is that me?"

"This is Iron Man, and Iron Man's Sentinel," Carey explains earnestly. "Iron Man made Sentinel Loki an armor for protection."

"That's pretty smart of him," Tony comments. "They're even wearing the same color, that's pretty cool."

He's not even pandering; he does think it's pretty cool. Besides, there's just something about kids that disarms him; their honesty, their earnest affection, the way they sometimes can forget him the moment they turn away and how at other times he as what he represents means more to them than can ever be warranted. It's not about being a Guide either, even if that makes interacting with them a little easier either sometimes, but right now they're pretty content either way.

Well, not everyone is. There has something been buzzing at the rim of Tony's senses; at first he'd thought it was the imprint left by the baby's discontent but it hasn't gotten better or faded at all. Now that he's closer to the source it's pretty obvious too, and impossible to ignore. Already, he has identified where it's coming from; by the cartoons there is a girl, a teenager really, doing a bad job at pretending to be entranced by the TV. She's using it to hide from the rest of the room and with how distressed she is, Tony wonders why she's here at all. Yes, this is a test, but the girl is _really_ upset, beyond what could be produced artificially or encouraged by the Center. Then again, she might have been okay when everyone was screened for the last time before being let into this room.

"Listen," Tony hears himself say to the kids before he's quite made a decision. "I have to go check on somebody but I'll be right back, okay? If you want you can give your drawings to Loki, he will keep them safe for me."

"Okay," they more or less chorus, not upset at his leaving. Another thing he likes about kids: short attention spans and they rarely demand much of him apart from a couple of minutes of attention.

Wandering over to where the girl is huddling in a beanbag chair, he sits down between her and the rest of the room and waits a moment, but she's gone tense when she noticed him and doesn't relax. It's almost as if she's holding her breath. After a moment, Tony tilts his head to the side, though he remains ostensibly focused on the TV, and says, "Do you need a tissue?"

Not that he has any, dammit, he could've planned this better. Then again, when he was still right next to Loki he had barely been aware that there was something going on.

Fortunately she shakes her head and crosses her arms. "I'm fine."

Tony snorts. "Yeah, right. You're a moment away from bursting into tears."

Immediately, said tears well up in her eyes. Maybe Tony should've handled that a little more delicately, but she's still pretending nothing is going on, shoving trembling fingers into the pockets of her hoodie. "I'm fine."

"I'd believe that if your voice didn't wobble there," Tony says, but softly. "Also, you're crying now. I actually don't have any tissues here, do you maybe want me to go, uh. Get some?"

She laughs, a little wetly, and wipes at her eyes with her sleeves. Okay, that works. "You're really bad at this."

"You're telling me," Tony sighs. "There's a reason they never had me come in for anything. Here's to hoping they'll stick to that even now, I'm not cut out for this."

"But you're a Guide," she argues, turning watery blue eyes on him. "A real Guide, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Tony replies, and if it had been asked any other way he would probably have flipped, but there's something about her, about her expression maybe, that doesn't allow him to get angry. Subconsciously, he realizes that she doesn't mean it like that.

She nods and, lower lip trembling, wipes at her eyes again. "Because my girlfriend his a Guide too and I thought. You were okay without a Sentinel for a long time, right? I thought if you can do it, then she can too."

Ah, that again. Tony will probably never escape this. He swallows. "How old are you? How old is she?"

"Sixteen." The girl swallows. "Her name is Saphira and I'm Mary. Do you want to see a picture of her?"

"Yeah, sure, show me." He doesn't want to care, he really doesn't, but it's impossible in the face of her distress, especially since it's very much the same problem that father had earlier. And there simply is no solution. Sometimes Tony thinks that being a Guide is bad, but loving a Guide and being mundane is worse. Not that that's true, but moments like this it's hard to remember.

Mary digs out a phone out of her pocket – a StarkPhone, Tony notices with satisfaction – and unlocks it. The background screen is a photo of her, looking definitely a lot less distressed, and presumably Saphira, her girlfriend. They look happy together, both smiling widely with Saphira's rosy cheek pressed against Mary's darker one. Tony looks at her for a moment and wonders what the hell she thinks she's doing, getting involved with someone. Then again, she's sixteen, and a Guide very much aware of statistics. It'll all end in pain one way or another anyway, but she should live however she wants to anyway.

"This was a couple of weeks ago, we went shopping," Mary tells him, calming down a little now that she's looking at pictures of her girlfriend. She pulls up another of Saphira alone, a little blurry around the edges but Saphira's face is easy to see, a moderately pretty girl, fresh-faced and awfully young.

He lets Mary show him a couple of more pictures, chronicles of a teenage lovestory, and eventually Mary says, "Saphira says she'd never do anything to herself. She says it hurts, but she loves life too much. She said she's going to be like you."

"Unbonded at thirty-six?" Tony guesses, without any bitterness. This isn't about that, and besides, maybe this kid is smart not to expect to be bonded. If it helps her deal with the hole inside, feeling like there's literally a chunk of her missing, all power to her, really.

Mary looks up at him. " _Alive_ at thirty-six, no matter what."

Tony swallows. He wants to be realistic like he was with that father earlier, but he's not sure he can do that to Mary. She looks like she's going to break if he so much as suggests that the statistics are stacked heavily against her girlfriend.

So Tony does something he rarely does: he isn't truthful. It's not a lie, but he would be lying if he said he fully believed what he's going to say now. Which maybe makes him a bad person, or maybe not being truthful makes him a bad person, but Tony can't tell this sixteen-years-old girl that her girlfriend is probably going to kill herself, any more than he can tell her that she shouldn't be involved with a Guide at all because that's just stupid. Even if it is. "She's strong – she must be, if you love her."

Mary nods quickly.

Tony swallows and says, "Then she can do it."

He carefully doesn't mention either that it's still perfectly possible that she finds her Sentinel, and that when that happens, Mary has little to no chance. See how easily Tony cut Pepper out of his life – and part of him feels guilty about it, but he can't bring himself to do any more about it. Her presence in Tony's life would shake his and Loki's foundation too much. And he and Pepper just had sex, because Pepper, having over fifteen years on Mary, knows better than to get emotionally invested in a Guide, and possibly also because Tony knew better than Saphira, but more likely just because Tony wasn't capable of meaningful, romantic relationships with other people. But if Saphira finds her Sentinel, she'll have to cut off Mary too. It probably won't be easy, not if she really loves Mary, but for the good of her Sentinel she would probably do it. Unless the Sentinel somehow manages to deal with a third present during seclusion, a highly unlikely scenario. Maybe after, once the bond has been firmly established, Saphira and Mary can figure out their relationship and maybe even continue it, but that would be months after the fact and really, isn't very realistic.

Mary should – has to know this. People have likely told her, and the Center has definitely explained it to Saphira, more than once. It's dumb for them to ignore facts. On the other hand, they're sixteen years old teenagers. If they want to do it, they're going to do it and telling them no likely only has the opposite of the intended effect.

Anyways, it doesn't matter. Mary is already nodding, a new hope in her eyes, though she still has to swallow tears down. "Thank you," she says, cradling her phone close to her chest.

Tony nods and rises to his feet before making a beeline for Loki. The handful of kids that somehow got stuck on them are assembled around the table and two adults are sitting there as well, but Tony's chair remains unoccupied. He almost regrets that, it would offer him the excuse to sit in Loki's lap, but he's a grown-ass adult Guide and isn't going to sit in his Sentinel's lap unless there are extenuating circumstances. So Tony just takes his chair and drags it as close to Loki as he can. Loki, who most certainly listened to Tony's entire conversation with Mary – not that it was that long – tilts his body towards him, but otherwise ostensibly keeps his focus on whatever some guy is telling him; Tony doesn't pay attention. He just sits and leans against Loki, grateful when Loki naturally but without drawing any attention wraps an arm around him and otherwise ostensibly seeming to pay no further attention to Tony, leaving him to lean against his Sentinel and pretend to listen while he draws strength from Loki's presence, the physical contact.

Eventually, Tony is calm enough to actually start paying attention to the conversation; the children are still there, apparently having moved their crayon headquarters to this table, and appear to be drawing self-portraits. They somehow collected a bunch of other kids and cut the sheets of papers into fourths, and on each of the photo-sized sheets they're drawing pictures of themselves. One of the adults has been dragged into it already as well; there clearly is some sort of plan at work. Tony has no idea what it could be.

The guy Loki is talking to is an older guy past retirement age with a bushy beard and a red face. Apparently he's a retired police officer or something similar, because he's telling Loki stories about how Sentinels helped in his line of work – solve crimes, find missing persons, literally or metaphorically sniff out evidence. Sometimes, the guy says, Sentinels can be a bit of a hindrance and most cases are perfectly solvable without their interference, but at other times their help is absolutely irreplaceable and priceless. "Especially with the Guides," the guy is saying. "I mean we always hd to put in requests for the Sentinel but sometimes it was the Guide we needed. Never underestimate a Guide's ability to find a missing child, seriously."

"I would never underestimate a Guide's worth," Loki says, thumb rubbing tiny circles into Tony's hip. Most of his hand is on Tony's shirt but he somehow, without Tony noticing, managed to wriggle his little finger between Tony's shirt and jeans and it stays tucked underneath his waistband unobtrusively, not suggestive or anything. It's just there, comforting.

Tony, still leaning against Loki's chest, smirks. "You better."

The guy glances at Tony. "Have you been involved in any searches?"

Tony raises both eyebrows. "You really think they could keep it secret if they used me? Way too high recognition factor for this face."

Understanding, the guy nods. "Though you're Iron Man, so I suppose you found a way to follow your instincts and help people anyway."

Right, because that's why he did it.

It isn't, but Tony isn't going to argue; for some reason people seem to think they know better why Tony does things than Tony and it's just wasted energy trying to convince them otherwise.

"Iron Man," Julian says, creeping closer with a handful of crayon and a fourth of a sheet of paper. "You have to draw yourself!"

"Oh, do I?" Tony looks around and to his amusement finds that the kids are running around urging people to draw self-portraits. "Myself or Iron Man?"

Suddenly, Tony finds himself under the intense focus of a pair of wide, dark eyes. "But you _are_ Iron Man!" Julian gasps, expression begging Tony to confirm it.

Conceding, Tony inclines his head. "Right, that's true." It's probably asking too much of an at most six-years-old to make a distinction.

So Tony ends up having to draw a picture of himself. He can't even remember the last time he touched crayons and strongly suspects it was never; he wasn't really into the traditional child sort of activities even when he was a child himself. He feels pretty awkward about it now so he doesn't try to draw the next Van Gogh, which is a good thing because he ends up with something closer to Picasso anyway. Next to him Loki has managed to weasel out of having to draw a self-portrait by claiming he has never used crayons before – which, granted, is probably the truth but Tony hasn't either – and that he needs help, which results in Carey making Loki's self-portrait for him. So it's not a self-portrait anymore but a drawing of Loki, and Loki looks pretty self-satisfied about how it all turned out.

Once Tony is done with his own drawing he quickly hands it over to Julian and hopes to be rid of it with that, but somehow the children turn up with cello tape and start taping all the pictures together into a long chain. Tony watches the proceedings with a bit of confusion and wariness. "So..." he eventually drawls. "Are children always this organized?"

Several of the adults close by snort. "No, thank god," Gavin, one of the guys sitting close by, says. "I'm afraid this is mine's fault." He nods over to Nathalie. "She just started school and this is what they did their first day, the chain is hanging in their classroom now. Seems like she was impressed enough with it to pass the idea on."

"I think it's cute," some woman opines.

"I think something in the oven is about to burn," Loki says lazily.

Somebody curses and makes a beeline for the oven, taking out three sheets of cookies that were in the process of obtaining a nice tan. Loki's warning came just in time.

"I didn't know there was even stuff to bake here," Tony says, impressed. "They went all out supplying this, did they?" His Guide test herd certainly hadn't been so well equipped. Entertainment for the kids, sure, but not as much for the adults, who could be relied upon to find conversation riveting enough for a couple of hours, though Tony doubts that anything but budget was the thought behind it.

"Yeah, this is the best-equipped herd I've been to," Alice provides, sounding amused. "Not that I'm complaining."

Tony isn't complaining either, especially when a little later the guy in charge of the cookies (or at least the baking) returns and puts a basket of them, still hot, on the table. "Don't let the children at them, they have their own but they're still too warm," he warns.

"I doubt they'll last long enough," some woman laughs, and she does lean forwards in interest but doesn't reach out until Loki has fished two cookies out, eying the star shapes with interest as he hands one to Tony. They are still pretty warm, almost too hot to eat, but when Tony carefully nibbles his he abruptly decides that warm cookies are the best. He's never had them before and it looks like he'll have to learn how to bake to get them again, but then at least it won't as much of a lie when he claimed earlier that he can bake.

Eating his cookie in two bites once he decides it's edible, Tony reaches out for another, mouth full. At the same time some woman reaches out for the cookies as well, but her attention is caught by a child whining about wanting one too and she doesn't pay attention where she's reaching. In itself that wouldn't be too big a deal, Tony makes sure their hands won't touch accidentally and nothing would have happened, but suddenly the child bounces, bumping into her mother, whose hand brushes against Tony's.

A sharp feeling of _wrong_ shoots through Tony, spiky and distasteful even if it doesn't actually hurt, and he gasps and pulls his hand back. But worse is Loki's reaction, who goes from vaguely amused but not really relaxed to completely rigid, and Tony feels the alarm shooting through him. Immediately he puts his hand on Loki, instinctively, before he even has properly grasped what's happening. Loki stays still, back stiff and leaning forwards, eyes focused on the woman, who is staring at them with wide, scared eyes, hiding her hand behind her back and pushing her child behind her with the other. Most of the people around them haven't even noticed what happened and only realize now, at the abrupt switch in mood, that something is wrong.

It's a weird sort of standstill; Loki is staring at the woman who stares back at him with wide, deer-caught-in-the-headlight eyes. Tony, feeling the wrongness still echo in him even if it isn't half as strong anymore as it was at the initial moment of contact, keeps his hand on Loki's thigh, the muscle hard, nearly vibrating with tension under his palm. Loki feels coiled tight like a spring and while Tony doesn't think he's going to do anything to the woman – if he were, he would already have done it; this is instinct and Loki clearly has a firm lid on his. But that doesn't mean Loki isn't still struggling and Tony doesn't like it.

It feels like he's the only one moving in the small radius of their immediate vicinity; everybody else seems to be almost holding their breath, focused on Loki. The adrenaline-spiked alarm and worry are thick on Tony's tongue as he leans in, plasters himself to Loki's side and nuzzles his neck while climbing into his lab. He remembers what Loki did to that crazy Sentinel who tried to touch him but that was an entirely different situation. Speaking instinct-wise that doesn't really matter, but Loki is rarely ruled by his instincts. Self-control could be his middle name.

Tony doesn't say a word, just rubs his cheek against the vulnerable part of Loki's neck, and slowly, in increments, Loki relaxes. Or, well, "relax" is an exaggeration, but he at least doesn't feel like he's a moment from jumping over the table and ripping that woman's arm off.

One of Loki's arm winds around Tony's waist and Loki pulls him closer as he sits back. "Perhaps," he says very calmly, speaking into the silence reigning around them, "You should leave the room."

"Yes," the woman says, face white, and gets up. Her child, not understanding what's going on but scared by her mother's reaction, keeps silent as the two of them leave.

The whole thing didn't take ten seconds.

Somebody exhales loudly, and somebody else huffs a nervous laugh; Tony doesn't know who and doesn't care enough to lift his face from Loki's neck to check. Nobody says anything, though. Instead, a woman asks Gavin a question about something he had mentioned earlier and, though stilted at first, a conversation slowly develops. Pretty soon, the tension in the air has mostly faded, and while Loki still isn't actually calm, he's not on high alert anymore. He still watches their surroundings carefully, but nobody comes even remotely close enough to be in danger of touching them.

"We can go to the room," Tony suggests quietly, lips brushing against Loki's ear.

"No," Loki replies just as quietly, hand sliding down Tony's back. "I can still smell her, but she's gone."

Tony takes that to mean that Loki will be okay so long as she remains gone. "You're magnificent," he sighs, sitting back a little and carding his fingers through Loki's hair. Part of him wants to feel silly for being a grown ass adult and sitting in another grown ass adult's lap in public, but most of him doesn't care. This close Loki is fully in his shields and Tony can feel him slowly calm down.

At least somewhat, Tony acknowledges a little ruefully when Loki turns his head towards her a full three seconds before Carey gets to them. She's beaming, excited, but her smile fades a little when she sees them. "Are you okay?" she asks, instinctively pausing at something of a distance to them, though less so than the adults have been keeping.

"Yeah, kid," Tony replies, taking care to smile at her like he normally does, his public smile that looks honest. "Something went a little wrong, but we're okay now."

She eyes them for a moment, not because she's an unusually astute child but more likely because she's a Guide, even if it's just a very mild trace in her yet. Some Guides, like Tony, develop early, but most don't until closer to their teens. "When something bad happens to me," she says after a moment, "I go to my mommy and she kisses me and my booboo goes away."

"That's nice," Tony says, not sure what she's trying to say and more occupied with the way her mother is hovering close by, watching anxiously. She no doubt heard about the incident, but there's no reason to worry. Carey is just a child. Children are generally exempt to a lot of things adults aren't; Loki wasn't bothered at all, for example, when Tony touched the baby earlier. It wouldn't be ideal if one of the kids touched him now but it wouldn't be a disaster, Loki wouldn't go on a rampage or whatever it is Carey's mother is worried about.

Carey looks at them earnestly. "So you should kiss and the booboo will go away."

Tony stares at her for a moment. Did a kid really just try to matchmake him and his Sentinel? Did that really just happen?

Loki chuckles, if only just a little, and says, "What an excellent idea." He takes hold of Tony's chin and leans in, and for a moment Tony worries that Loki is going to really lay one on him in front of all of these people but Loki keeps it sweet, not exactly short but very innocent, kid-friendly in other words.

When they pull apart Carey is covering her eyes and grimacing. "Are you done?" She calls out, like they're suddenly hard of hearing because she can't see them anymore.

"Yes, thank you," Loki says.

Her hands drop away from her face. "Good. Now you have ta come and look at the chain!"

"The chain?" Tony repeats to distract her while he glances at Loki, but his Sentinel doesn't appear to have a problem with that idea.

"Come look!" Carey demands insistently, so Tony, a little reluctantly, slides off Loki's lap. Immediately Loki rises to his feet and takes Tony's hand, and then they both follow Carey to where most of the kids are assembled on the floor along a long string of self-portraits taped together. Everybody subtly but quickly moves out of their way – the adults, that is, the kids have missed the drama and even if they hadn't, they probably already forgot, what with it having been a whole ten minutes ago.

"This looks really awesome," Tony comments because several pairs of wide, eager eyes are focused on him. "Where are you going to put it?"

"On your wall!" Carey exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air. "Like in Nathalie's school! And when we visit you we can see it!"

Oh boy. Licking his lips, Tony debates with himself briefly before sighing. "Sounds pretty cool. But I think something is missing."

Immediately all the kids stare at him expectantly. Tony feels a little bad because no matter what their expectations are, they're going to get disappointed. "Your autographs need to be on the pictures, I think you should really go and sign them."

"What's an autograph?" A kid Tony doesn't know asks another at stage-whisper while some of the children already scramble to retrieve the crayons to accomplish the task.

"Your name," the kid whispers back. "You have to write your name!"

That occupies them for a little while because not only the children need to sign, they also need to drag every adult over and make them sign their own drawings. Tony feels a little better to find that most of the adults aren't the next Da Vinci either. While he does so he takes a closer look at Loki's not-self-portrait, which looks really unfairly adorable. His grin is stretching from one ear to the other, hair curving into spikes at the tips, and Loki's arms are held out like he's asking the world for a hug. The real Loki is right next to Tony, hovering so close in his personal space he's almost plastered to Tony's side, but Tony still feels the need to wrap an arm around him and give him a little hug because the tiny figure on the floor, taped between Tony's actual self-portrait and Carey's, just tugs at his heartstrings. He doesn't even know why it would because picture-Loki is _smiling_ , but whatever. As if Tony needs an excuse to cuddle his Sentinel, especially after the incident earlier.

Wrapping one arm around Tony's waist, Loki hooks his chin over Tony's shoulder and watches the chaos in front of them unfold from there. There's even a drawing of the baby Tony held earlier – Tony thought it was just a cloud in the middle of the chain because it's more a waddle of blue crayon with a big smile and round eyes, but when he sees the mother sign it with the baby's name he realizes that it's actually supposed to be the baby. Which is sort of cute, actually. The kids really thought of everything.

Except Nathalie doesn't look happy; she's actually crying and being comforted by her father, who has his hands on her shoulder and is talking in her ear as they both look down at the chain of pictures. Tony frowns and almost asks Loki what's going on, but breach of privacy, private conversation laws and all that, so he refrains.

Eventually everybody's name is in the appropriate place, and Carey excitedly walks up to Tony and Loki to inform them of this fact. "Awesome," Tony says. "Why is Nathalie crying, though?"

Carey frowns and glances at her friend. "They're supposed to hold hands like in her school, I don't know why it didn't work."

Because nobody knew and drew their hands somewhere different. Tony doesn't see where the drama is, it doesn't make that much of a difference, but he doesn't mention that. Instead he shrugs and says, "It looks cool even without." Positive reinforcement and all that, right? Especially now that he takes a closer look at the picture chain and spots even the teenagers. As far as Tony knows most teenagers aren't really into doing things they perceive as childish, so it's a pretty amazing feat the kids managed to get them involved anyhow. "And we're supposed to take this home now?"

Carey nods excitedly. "Yeah!"

Tiny problem. "How? It's pretty hard to carry." Maybe he can still wriggle his way out of having to take the thing, because if he does, he won't be able to throw it away. Stupid awards, whatever, but something children made out of genuine affection or even admiration? Tony couldn't possibly. He might or might not have a couple of storage boxes full of drawings kids send him (or Iron Man, rather). If he takes the thing he'll have to keep it.

But Carey, unfortunately, pretty quickly thinks of a solution. "We roll it up! Like toilet paper!" She immediately jumps to the beginning (end? it's sorta hard to tell) of the chain and starts to roll it up.

Tony sighs. "Looks like we're taking this thing home."

"Just don't touch it," Loki says. At the slightly odd request Tony blinks a little in surprise, but after a moment it starts to sort of make sense to him. What with how many people touched it, it's got to smell of everyone in the room, and after the touching incident earlier Loki probably isn't too much into the idea of Tony touching it now and getting the smell all over himself. That's a little bit weird, because touching things another person touched shouldn't be that big of an issue, but Tony isn't going to say that to his Sentinel after Loki just remained remarkably composed when somebody touched his Guide.

Instead, he turns his back a little and pretends to not immediately notice when Carey walks up to them bearing the roll and a wide, proud smile; Loki swiftly moves in and takes the thing and then Tony acknowledges Carey as well. He smiles and nods towards the roll. "Thanks, this is pretty awesome. You can tell your friend as well, I don't think it matters that they're not holding hands."

Beaming, Carey jumps on her toes a little before storming off to inform Nathalie, who doesn't look quite so inconsolable anymore with a cookie in her hand.

"Phew," Tony makes, turning to Loki. Then he blinks. "Where did you put it?"

"Pocket dimension," Loki replies off-handedly, taking Tony's hand and leading him back to their chairs.

Tony gapes. "What? How?" Pocket dimensions? Why is this only coming up now? How did he not know Loki can do that? Also, how the fuck does that work? Magic is going to be responsible for all of Tony's major scientific crises for the next couple of years, he just knows it.

Loki just raises an eyebrow at him. "Do you wish to talk about this now?"

Looking around, Tony bites his lower lip. "I guess not." No, what he wants to do right now is go home, take a shower to wash the phantom memory of somebody else's touch on him off and then roll around in their bed and thoroughly reaffirm with Loki that his Sentinel is the only one whose scent is allowed to be on Tony. What he definitely doesn't want right now is to talk about this when he probably won't be able to pay proper attention and when they're in public, bound to be both observed and distracted.

Even if Tony really is terribly curious. He sighs and slumps a little into Loki's side.

They sit there in privacy for a short while, watching as the kids finally get to have cookies and predictably go a little nuts over it; it's a little chaotic for a while, though none of the chaos reaches them. Eventually a young woman with a slightly insecure smile makes her way over to them and slowly, presumably to give them enough time to protest, takes a chair before taking a seat. "Hey, I'm Rhia," she introduces herself. "How are you two? I heard about the thing earlier, that must've been harrying. My brother, right, gentlest Sentinel I've ever met, completely flew off the handle when some guy accidentally touched his Guide when they'd just come out of seclusion. Sorry, I didn't mean to babble at you, I just meant to make sure you're okay."

"Yeah, thanks," Tony replies non-committally with a false smile.

"Your brother is a Sentinel?" Loki asks curiously, unexpectedly engaged suddenly as he leans forwards. "What was that like for you, growing up?"

Rhia blinks. "It was no issue, if that's where you're getting at? Sure, we had to do some things differently but it was for him so it was no problem."

"Did it not... bother you?" Loki asks, a curious emphasis on the word. "That you had to make allowances for him?"

"Allowances?" Rhia repeats. "Hell, we had to re-order our whole lives around him. No perfume in the house, no perfumed cleaning products or washing powder, no too loud music even with noise-canceling headphones, no overly spicy food, always having to keep everything clean, having to be very quiet when it all got too much for him and he had to lock himself in the room with the noise-canceling walls that we had to equip especially for him. Everything changed. But, you know, at the same time nothing changed because that's all just superficial, you know? And you get used to it. Sure, the first couple of weeks it was an adjustment, but now it's just normal for us. And we love him, and our family was better with him there, so nobody minded. ...well, that's a bit of a lie, my mom's brother was really annoyed when she gave him a list of things he had to do when coming to visit, like only wear clothes washed with this special brand of washing powder, no smoking, things like that, but if he didn't stick to the rules he wasn't allowed to come to visit. I mean, it's not like it's my brother's fault, right? And we're his family, we kinda have to stand by him, even if we didn't want to. But we do." She closes her mouth and flushes again. "Sorry, I babbled again, I didn't mean to."

"No, no," Loki waves his hand absentmindedly, thoughts already somewhere else. "It was interesting."

For Tony's taste, Rhia looks too much like she's about to figure something out Tony would rather she not know, so he leans forwards and distracts her. "How old was your brother when he found his Guide?"

That does the trick; she smiles warmly, remembering. "Sixteen. So I guess flying off the handle wasn't too surprising, but he literally jumped the guy who did it and snarled at everyone close by, I've never seen a radius clear of people that quickly. In hindsight it's pretty funny, the sorta story you tell your grandkids, you know? But he knows a Sentinel who was twenty-two when she bonded and she almost broke a girl's arm who touched her Guide, so it doesn't have much to do with puberty, I think. Which reminds me, is it true that-" She interrupts herself, ducking her head. "Uh, never mind."

"No, what?" Tony asks curiously. "Is what true?" He can guess, but he wants to hear for sure.

"No, no, nothing," Rhia tries to wave him off, "forget it."

Tony raises an eyebrow at her; come on. "Like I'm going to now. Come on, out with it, I won't rip your head off."

Exhaling noisily, Rhia mutters something that sounds a lot like "me and my big mouth" under her breath before she purses her lips and nods. "Alright. Okay so I heard a story that Sentinel Loki broke some guy's arm when he tried to touch you? Like, a couple of days ago, when you first came to the Center."

Ah, that. Suspicion confirmed and undeniably pleased – people are talking about it, and though no newspaper or internet website will mention anything about it because of lawsuits the SGC would file, there is nothing that forbids witnesses from talking about it, and clearly it's already in the grapevine. Suppressing a smile (it probably wouldn't do to smile like he's flattered when somebody brings up the violence Loki inflicted upon a person trying to touch him), Tony nods. "That's true. Well, he didn't break his arm, he broke his hand. The guy was crazy."

Eyes widening, Rhia leans forwards. "I heard he did it without touching him but that's just exaggeration, right?"

Gossiping, Tony is voluntarily participating in gossip about himself. Well, it wouldn't be the first time, and this is the most awesome part of the story. "Nope. He really didn't touch him. Loki was sitting in the waiting area and I was on my way to get coffee and this crazy Sentinel comes at me and tries to touch me but Loki kept his hand suspended, and then he crushed it. All with magic. He won't try touching a Guide without permission again anytime soon."

Rhia's mouth drops open and she stares at Tony for a moment before turning to stare at Loki, eyes going impossibly wider when Loki smiles sweetly, innocently. All in all, her reaction is very satisfactory and Tony sure hopes she's going to tell everyone she knows. By the end of the week most people likely to meet him in the nearest future should be aware, and even if they don't believe the magic part and consider it embellishment like Rhia did, they'll think twice about touching Tony. Sure, that didn't help much with the woman earlier, but that was accidental and as proven, Loki won't fly off the handle at accidental touches. Just the thought of that happening makes Tony shudder inwardly; that accidental touch earlier was already enough to make him feel soiled, like he did something wrong, and he still feels it.

"That's... pretty amazing," Rhia finally finds her voice. "Uh, though I probably shouldn't say that about a guy getting his hand crushed, and I mean, I feel sorry for him, if he's a Sentinel who went crazy, but still. _Awesome_. I bet it really helps knowing you can keep your Guide safe that way, does it?"

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Since magic was always at my disposal, I cannot imagine a scenario where that wouldn't be the case." But clearly he has some idea and really doesn't like it, because his hand slides underneath Tony's shirt to touch the naked skin of his back, out of sight of pretty much anyone except possibly the security cameras, but still reassuring for both of them.

Rhia nods sympathetically. "Yeah, I get it. What about you, though, Guide Stark?"

She's nosy, but Tony supposes he can't blame her too much, he was the one who just fed her prime gossip. "Honestly, I wouldn't care if he couldn't do any magic at all. Obviously it's very convenient and helpful, but this is _my Sentinel_." He really doesn't know how else to put it.

Loki's hand, warm on his skin, fans out and slides to his waist, pulling Tony a little closer at the same time as Loki leans in and brushes a kiss against Tony's temple. Tony is so distracted by both he almost misses Rhia's reaction; she abruptly realized that her question might have been just a teensy tiny bit offensive, what with the implications, and is scrambling to assure them that yes, of course, and she didn't mean it like that, sorry. Then she feigns needing to do something somewhere and leaves them to it.

"Midgardians are curious," Loki comments, sounding mostly amused. "Though they are curiously nice about it. On Asgard-" He interrupts himself and doesn't continue.

For a moment Tony tries telling himself to not ask, or at least not now, but his curiosity is too strong. "What, on Asgard?"

"People are at both complacent and curious, which is a strange combination to co-exist," Loki says, the tone if not the words rather curt. "And they are decidedly more mean-spirited about it."

Mulling that over, Tony licks his lips. "People can be pretty horrible here too though, they just generally end up in this sort of test or even just inside the SGC. If they're worse on Asgard, I'm seriously worried now." A thought occurs to him, making his brows furrow. "Will I ever go there?"

"No," Loki says sharply, grip around Tony's waist tightening. Pressing his mouth against Tony's temple again, Loki breathes his Guide's scent in for a moment, letting it calm him. "No, you shall not. Not if I can prevent it. They would not be kind and I would never willingly put you into such an environment."

What environment, Tony wants to ask, but he manages to bite his tongue. That really is a conversation for later. He just nods, careful not to brush Loki's lips away, and leans into him. "Okay."


	4. Chapter 4

They stay there sitting for a while, watching the crowd; Tony is thinking they've been here long enough already, the test should be coming to an end. If not for their nerves, then for the children, some of which are starting to get cranky. It can't be because they're hungry, there's food more or less being continuously prepared by different people, so they must be tired. Hell, _Tony_ is tired. He wants to go home.

Eventually Loki stirs. "Somebody just entered the safe zone." He tilts his head. "Ah. An employee of the Center, the test is coming to an end."

The guy must have started talking pretty much as soon as he was in the safe zone. It's for the better, Tony has heard that sometimes Sentinels can get very proprietorial about their herds. Sometimes that happens when a group of people is isolated with a Sentinel, but while Loki is alert, sitting up and attentively watching the door, he's also calm, very much not in danger of jumping a stranger coming into this room.

Right, and perhaps they should let their herd know that the test is done. Rising to his feet, Tony stands on his chair, puts two fingers in his mouth, pulls them out again and says "Careful this is going to be loud" before putting them in again and whistles shrilly. Loki, forewarned, doesn't react, but everybody else turns to pay attention, some of them wincing at the noise. Also, he woke the baby up, oops. "Okay," Tony calls, "Test's over, everybody can go home!"

The chaos that ensues as everybody scrambles to collect their things or children, or their children's things, is greater than anything else. Tony glances towards where the mother with the baby is, trying to calm it down, and grimaces. Okay, so he does feel a little guilty about that.

Getting down from the chair he puts a hand on Loki's chest. "You okay if I calm the baby again?"

"I will come with you," Loki says and true to his word, shadows Tony's every step as they walk over to the baby.

"Hi again," Tony greets the mother, who looks a lot less stressed out than earlier but still frazzled. "Sorry about that." He smiles self-deprecatingly. "Want me to do my thing again?"

She sighs in relief. "Yes, please. He's going to need to be fed soon anyway, but it would be great if that could wait until we're home." She hands the wailing baby over, careful to avoid touching Tony in any way, and sends a nervous smile towards Loki.

Closing himself off to his environment – excepting Loki, who has put his hand in the small of Tony's back again, though on top of his shirt this time – Tony closes his eyes and exhales slowly. The baby is squirming in his arms but he ignores that as well, tries to calm himself down and project that calm onto the baby like he did before, and only the baby, not Loki. At first when he expands his shields he instinctively, automatically tries to include his Sentinel; Tony has to make a conscious effort to pull them in again, but once he's done that he manages to make the baby settle and it falls back asleep, still tired.

"Thank you," the mother says, sounding way more grateful than the situation warrants.

"No problem," Tony replies. He has a feeling he should say something else – something encouraging – but he has no idea what. What the hell does he know about being a parent, having a baby? Nothing. And he never will, what with his Sentinel being male, but considering how most Sentinels are male, that's not a new revelation to him or anything.

In the end he just shrugs uncomfortably and turns away, leaving her to strap the baby into a carrier.

Immediately he's accosted by Carey. Well, sort of; she doesn't touch him but she rushes towards him like she's going to fling herself at him, only stopping at the last moment. Very relieved about that – Tony doesn't know how Loki would have felt about somebody who isn't a baby touching him right now, after the morning they've had – Tony smiles at her. "Hey. You're leaving?"

"Yeah!" Carey says loudly. "I wanted to say goodbye!" She looks at Loki and pauses. "Hey, where is our chain?!"

"Here," Loki says and does something that looks like a slight of hand except it involves both hands and also he's _pulling the roll of paintings out of an extradimensional pocket_. Jesus fucking Christ, Tony needs to know how he did that. He needs it like air.

Eyes wide and round, Carey stares at the roll for a moment and literally gasps when Loki makes it vanish again. "Was that magic?!"

"Yes." Loki sounds far too amused.

Wide-eyed and with her mouth open, Carey gapes at Loki until her mother calls for her for the third time. She startles and looks over her shoulder where her mother is waving her over, looking impatient; most people are already in the process of filing out of the room. Turning around towards them again, Carey darts in for a quick hug, wrapping her arms around Loki for less than a second before she says breathlessly "That was so cool!" over her mother's appalled "Carey!" Then she runs off, like it didn't happen if she's quick about it and fast enough about getting away. Kids. And yeah, Tony is uncomfortable with it, he doesn't like that she _hugged_ his Sentinel, but it's just another thing about today that makes him uncomfortable. He's sure that as soon as he gets home, has a shower and gets some one on one time with his Sentinel he won't mind at all anymore. In the end she's just a kid who only today realized she is a Guide.

Neither of them says a word as they watch everybody leave the room, most people at least nodding and waving or smiling at them if they don't call out a quick "bye!". Pretty soon the room is cleared, and that's when the Center's employee steps in, a little cautious but pointedly calm.

"Sentinel Loki, Guide Stark," he nods at them. "How are you feeling?"

Tony is feeling like he's getting really tired of that question. "Peachy. Are we done? Can we go home now?"

"Yes, of course," the employee says. "You will receive a date and time for your appointment to discuss the results of your examination, it will likely be in about a week. If you have any complaints, issues or anything you wish to discuss or bring forwards, that will be your opportunity, though you can always of course also use the anonymous channels the Center offers."

"A week?" Tony repeats. Right now that sounds nice but he's actually been mentally preparing to finally get out of this isolation. Sure, he's not going to go crowd diving anytime soon, but he'd at least like to check on his company and also maybe make sure Fury isn't going to burst in and arrest his Sentinel or something like that. "That long?"

The employee blinks at him. "Approximately... there _were_ a lot of tests after all..." At their joint unimpressed expressions he clears his throat. "Maybe it will be a bit sooner, it depends on the tests."

"Hopefully," Tony says. "Clearly we did excellently." Not waiting for the employee to stammer out some sort of placating reply, he looks at Loki. "Ready to go?"

Without bothering to reply Loki teleports them to the apartment.

"Bloody fucking cow," Tony breathes as soon as he finds himself in their private space again. "I need a bed. I need you to fuck me in that bed. No, wait, I need a shower first. God, do I need that. Let's go shower."

Wordlessly, Loki follows him into the bathroom, but a quick glance confirms that his silence is born more of amusement than anything else. Tony pulls his clothes off as he goes and steps straight into the shower, which is already on and warm because JARVIS is brilliant. The noise he makes when the hot water washes over him is probably a bit indecent but he couldn't care less.

Tilting his head back, Tony stands in the warm spray and feels himself slowly unwind. His Sentinel joins him very quickly, body hovering around Tony though only Loki's hand actually touches him, until Tony hears the sound of liquid being squeezed out of a bottle. The next moment Loki steps up to him, blocking the water, and nudges him away from the spray a little before he begins to soap Tony up, starting with his chest, working on his arms and hands next before going lower, eventually kneeling and letting Tony use his shoulder as support when he makes him lift his feet. Loki is very thorough but Tony doesn't even get interested. He mulls that over slowly, vaguely curious at how suddenly he got so tired as he allows Loki to maneuver him back into the shower. Maybe it's because they're in a safe space now and can relax, he thinks as he closes his eyes while the water washes the suds off him. Then Loki's hands are on him again, shampooing his hair, and Tony just lets his thoughts go, keeps his eyes closed and concentrates only on the sensation. A sigh escapes him as strong fingers start to massage his scalp; Loki is really unfairly good at that with his strong, long fingers. He remains passive even once Loki finishes and maneuvers him back into the water. His Sentinel is close and they're alone and at home: it's all he needs right now.

Eventually, when the water has washed the soap from his face and hair, Tony stirs and lifts his arms, rubs his hands over his face before blinking his eyes open. In front of him Loki is soaping himself up as well, perfunctory and quick, taking a lot less time and care with himself.

"Hey," Tony says softly, stepping up to Loki and wrapping both arms around his shoulders, getting soap all over himself again. He rubs his cheek against Loki's and doesn't say anything else because now he has lather on his face and he doesn't fancy having it in his mouth, but he doesn't need to say anything anyway. Loki, having gone still when Tony touched him, sighs and puts his arms around his Guide, pulls him close.

They stand like that for a while, the water running warm down their bodies, relaxing like it's actually washing the events of the day away. Eventually they step apart and finish getting clean – Loki has a thing about conditioner, though if Tony had hair longer than a few inches he would probably be more interested in that too. They dry off, carefully stepping around their clothes of the day lying around, and make a beeline for the bed in unspoken agreement.

It smells like them between the sheets and Tony sighs and curls up, pulls Loki up against his chest and wraps one arm around him, one hand on his heart. After a moment Loki's hand covers his, their fingers entwining, and Tony feels Loki relax.

"You were pretty amazing today," he says quietly. He'll probably say it again but it bears repeating anyway.

"So were you," Loki replies.

Tony nods, not sure if he agrees but accepting Loki's opinion, closes his eyes and breathes deep.

Their follow-up appointment is four days later.

"Really?" Loki asks, distaste wrinkling his nose. "Why did you not tell me about this before?"

"Because it's not important!" Exasperated, Tony throws his hands up in the air. This is the third time he's said it. "It won't apply to us, we're doing fine. Come on, as if anybody reasonably could put us into remedial lessons because we're maladjusted. We're plenty adjusted. You did amazing and I was okay, there is no way they'll put us in lessons. It just doesn't matter."

Peeved, Loki scowls. "I do not like being left unaware."

"Come on – okay, yeah, I get you, and you have a point. But this stuff, it's not like I ever consciously thought about it since learning it and that was _twenty years ago_. It's not like I have a list of stuff I need to tell you ready – I seriously thought you're pretty caught up with the immediately relevant stuff, and you _are_. This, seriously. It's not important for us."

Exhaling, Loki wraps his hand around Tony's wrist pulls him close to press his lips to his forehead. "I understand. But I really don't like not knowing. Next time you think of something you can reasonably expect I won't know yet, you tell me. Alright?"

Tony sighs. "Yeah." He does understand Loki. He can't stand not knowing stuff either, hates the thought of being in a room of people who know more than he does, which is why he's ensured it's only going to happen very rarely, at least in the areas he cares about.

"Are you ready?"

Tony nods and breathes out as Loki teleports them to the lobby of the Center's New York main chapter. They walk up to the reception together and have to queue up, which is annoying, but at least the receptionist doesn't have them sit around like trophies so lots of people can see them before they can go up to their appointment. It's early afternoon, though, and the lobby is far more busy than it was the last time they were here, so that's probably a factor too.

Their appointment is in a meeting room and consists of Dr. Marco, Sandrine, Thomas, a woman from the behavioral analysis unit and some guy from the review board of Sentinel/Guide post-bonding relations or something, which in essence means he's a member of a group of people who, after the professionals involved in the testing have made their reports and suggestions, views all evidence and makes an independent judgment based on that. Why he's here, Tony has no idea. Probably to be able to say he was or something.

"Guide Stark, Sentinel Loki," Marco nods at them as they take their seats. It's a round conference table but it doesn't do much in making Tony and Loki feel less like the center of attention, what with how everyone eyes them. "I think Dr. Reinhardt wanted to begin."

"That's right," the aforementioned doctor from the behavioral analysis unit says. She smiles at them. "My team and I were responsible for analyzing the data from the interactive group analysis test, in other words, your herd. How did you feel that test went?"

Tony shrugs as Loki replies, "Well enough."

"That's underselling yourselves a little, Sentinel Loki," Reinhardt says kindly. "Especially you did very well. First of all we'd like to apologize for Guide LeBeau slipping in through the cracks; we're still investigating but suffice to say, neither Guides nor Sentinels are supposed to be part of the herd in this specific scenario. Both of you handled that well, though; Guide Stark, you remained calm, extraordinarily so when taking into account that she touched your Sentinel more than once, and on purpose at that. We have since brought her into the program and she will not do it again, in case you were wondering. Sentinel Loki, you, of course, handled it extremely well when Mrs Kensington accidentally touched your Guide. Just based on that we can without doubt give you the green light to proceed leaving total seclusion. My team could find no reason for hesitation on that front. We have, of course, a full written, in-depth analysis of the test available, if you would like to know what other conclusions we came to. To put it briefly: as a pair we assessed you as stronger on the offensive, safeguarding, provident, alert ends of the scale, as individuals you vary slightly based on your different nature and consequent set of instincts, but all in all as a pair you're on the high end of sync. Another reasons why we had no hesitation to approve your leaving total seclusion. You can read our in-depth analysis in the report."

She doesn't hand them the report; the Center is a modern, environmentally conscious organization. It's probably in Tony's email inbox already.

"Thank you, Dr. Reinhardt," Marco says, there are some polite noises and then Reinhardt leaves the meeting.

Next is Sandrine's turn; she, shortly and succinctly, basically repeats her initial assessment of how Loki did on the tests. Loki is on the very high end of the scale for sight and sound (to the point where they aren't sure their equipment is good enough for him, which, yeah) and above average on the rest, naturally doing even better with his Guide present. Thomas pretty much reinforces what he'd already told Tony the day of the test as well, that Tony did well, showed vast improvement in comparison on tests he did before he bonded, which suggests that either with his Sentinel he has also found his equilibrium, or that he might continue to improve as he, with his Sentinel, works towards establishing balance. On a scale Tony is empathic but not sensitive, able to maintain a healthy distance mentally and perfectly capable of mentally protecting himself and his Sentinel. He's not extraordinary, but he isn't quite average either, which Tony supposes is perfect for him. He doesn't want to be a super special awesome Guide, it would only lead to trouble because then the Center would want to use him somehow and Tony would really rather keep doing his own thing, thank you very much. Especially with Loki being extraordinary enough already.

Once the pair is done informing Tony and Loki of their findings they take their leave as well, which leaves them with Dr. Marco and the guy whose name Tony already forgot. The guy is looking at Marco expectantly like he's waiting for her to sum up her findings as well, which she reacts to by raising her eyebrow.

"Really?" she says. "There is such a thing as patient-doctor confidentiality. There is a reason the results of the medical tests are excluded from the assessment, apart from my conclusions drawn based on the tests. I will require privacy with Sentinel Loki and Guide Stark before discussing the results with them."

"Of course," the guy hastens to agree, though he doesn't manage to really hide the unhappy expression crossing his face at the knowledge that he'll be excluded from something. Then he pauses when he finds himself at the focus of the three remaining people in the room. "Well," he says, flailing a little as he suddenly realizes that he's expected to contribute something or leave. "The review board assessed the results and assessments provided to us, and we have come to the conclusion that there is no reason not to let you progress from conclusion into probation." He nods, like it's some sort of surprise or a gift or something when they really had absolutely no reason to do anything else, considering that none of the tests proved difficult for either Tony or Loki. "Probation, of course, requires you to regularly talk to a post-bond pair therapist to work through any issues that might come up while you get used to... while you reintegrate into society."

"Sure," Tony says. This isn't news to him, and neither is it to Loki. They know the steps. He's not looking forwards to this part, but it's mandatory.

"Okay," the guy says after a moment, glancing at them. "I'll go then."

As soon as the door falls shut behind him Tony raises one judgmental eyebrow and looks at Marco. She shrugs, looking vaguely annoyed. "Review boards, you know how they are."

Tony barks a laugh; does he ever. They always like to stick their nose into everything and make things more complicated than they are in the interest of what they consider transparency or full accountability or whatever. "Okay. So how did we do?"

"Obviously, physically there were no new issues, or I would have brought them up immediately. You are familiar with the issues revolving around your heart, but while the muscle has gotten steadier, even bonding can't do much else." Other than that, she proceeds to mostly repeat, with more in-depth analysis, what she told him the first day: he's doing better blood-pressure wise and everything else. There is no comparison to be made for Loki but his heart is fine and he seems to be doing good, though he is a bit malnourished still. "Considering your recovery rate and how efficiently your body appears to use its energy and resources, I think I really don't want to know how you got there," she says, eying the reports on her tablet, deliberately not looking at either of them. "I also can't tell if bonding is helping you get better faster-"

"It is," Loki interrupts calmly. "I am recovering more swiftly than I would have expected."

Marco nods. "Very well." She swiftly finishes up her report and then they do the signing thing where Tony and Loki each sign the sheet already signed by the head of each department involved in their assessment, confirming that they are partially accountable for their actions again.

"I assume you want to meet with the Center's legal team to discuss the legal actions being taken on your part," Marco then says, "Also, you should probably let them prepare you before you face the public. As a personal recommendation, I wouldn't suggest you go out in public anytime in the near future, until they have calmed down a little."

Tony raises an eyebrow. "That bad?"

The look she sends him is scathing. "Long-term single and unbonded Guide Tony Stark, previously assumed to be on a downward spiral towards insanity, has suddenly and under mysterious circumstances procured his Sentinel, who is literally not from this Earth? I know you have a lot of experience dealing with the press but I'm willing to put money on the fact that this isn't like anything you've ever had to deal with before."

Tony blinks. This is the most opinionated he's ever heard her being. It must be _really_ bad, despite the protective laws concerning the discussion of Guides and Sentinels, especially during bonding. "Okay, point," he has to grant. "Though- well, a bit of a debriefing on what's been said about is the past couple of weeks would probably be a good idea."

Especially considering the fact that Tony has no assistant to sum the media reaction up for him; Pepper is his CEO and certainly too busy for things like that. JARVIS could do it, has probably already done it, and Tony is going to check out what he's collected but it certainly can't harm to hear what the SGC has assembled and what they think is the appropriate course of action. If only because Tony has not a lot of experience being hounded about this sort of thing. Everybody has known he was a Guide since he was four and while a lot of people certainly asked inappropriate or even purposefully hurtful questions over the years, he was really too young to be aware of the news breaking, and by the time he was old enough it wasn't nowhere close to news anymore.

"I will contact the legal team, who will contact you with an appointment," Marco says. "It will probably have to be soon, considering."

Considering the fact that from now on, Tony and Loki are supposed to slowly, step by step reintegrate into society, meaning they'll come into contact with people who haven't spent the past couple of weeks in bed without watching the news.

Marco continues, "The Center will also contact you concerning your regular appointments with a therapist. You have the right to veto anyone at any point before or after meeting them, though it's encouraged you meet them before rejecting them. They'll discuss the particulars of this with you." She pauses for a moment, frowning at her tablet. "I think that's all. Do you have any questions or concerns you wish to address?"

They share a look, then Tony shakes his head. "Nope, nothing."

"Very well. Then, congratulations to coming out of seclusion, remember that you can still contact the Center at any time if you have any concerns." Rising, Marco smiles at them. "Barring any issues, I will see you again in six months for your post-bonding assessment."

They make some polite see-you-then-bye noises and then Loki takes Tony back to the apartment.

Where Tony, well. He has no idea what to do now; they're now officially on probation which means that they can contact people and people, if having been given expressed permission by Loki and Tony, can contact them. That's the first step, anyway. They're supposed to gradually involve themselves in society and their daily lives again until they're more or less fully integrated again. It's a gradual and individual process, though, and nothing will happen unless they make the first step.

"So, uh," Tony says a bit awkwardly. "Do you want to contact anyone?"

"Not as of yet, no," Loki declines calmly. He waits a moment and, when Tony doesn't say anything, suggests, "We should probably try to find out what happened in our absence."

Yes, that's what Tony was afraid of. "Yeah, but... Jesus. Where do we start? There's kind of... a lot. We've been gone a month and the circumstances under which we found each other weren't exactly ideal."

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Then perhaps we should see what the lawyer you hired has to say."

"Good idea." Exhaling because he didn't have to suggest contacting Pepper – they'll have to do that probably soon, but well, Tony is a little hesitant about the whole thing. Understandably so, he thinks.

Fisher doesn't have much to say. Well, that's not true, she has a lot to say – she and her team are working with the team the SGC assigned to Tony and Loki and apparently there is a lot of work to be done, lots of people being sued on their behalf – but she's currently involved in a paperwork stalling war with SHIELD and waiting for the next step from them. She does, however, suggest that Tony follow through on his suggestion to pay the medical bills and also make a goodwill gesture of paying for the property damage Loki did, both in Puento Antiguo and to SHIELD. Not that she knows the true extent of either because SHIELD's being the opposite of forthcoming with their data, but that's why Tony has JARVIS up their ass, after all.

After the hacking incident on the helicarrier JARVIS has lost some ground in SHIELD's data – they've been uncoupling data bases left and right, but JARVIS is resourceful and creative and is already working his way back in. He finds the relevant data easily and Tony, after discussing the matter with his account manager, forwards the relevant data – bank accounts, the amount of money the medical bills cost et cetera – to her for her to take care of.

That done, Tony checks in with all the other things he normally barely pays attention to but that, if left alone for a bit, are suddenly _work_ , like his financial situation, his company, his stocks, and so on. It all takes a couple of hours and by the end of it he's starting to feel like he's making some headway, like he doesn't have this huge mountain of responsibility waiting for him anymore. Sure, there's still a lot to be done, but at least this is taken care of.

Tomorrow he'll check in with Pepper and, depending on how that goes, start in on checking what the media is saying about him – them. Also he does think he has a press relations person or something, but Pepper would know that better than he. He should probably also finally give in and hire another personal assistant.

"Midgard is certainly full of bureaucracy," Loki comments, mildly amused, when Tony tells him this after tracking his Sentinel down. They're standing by the huge panorama window in the living room where Loki has been staring out at the city, possibly using his senses, but if so, Tony certainly interrupted and distracted him from that. Not that he seems to mind.

Tony tilts his head. "I guess that's one way to look at it. It's also a lot of politics. Don't you have to do stuff like that on Asgard?"

"Not really." Loki shrugs. "There is no such thing as written gossip on Asgard. Nobody gives their money to somebody else to keep either; it would be an insult, the implication that one isn't able to protect one's possessions on their own. If a person deals another an insult, the offended can demand reparation in the form of gold to a battle to the death in order to restore one's honor. Third parties get only involved in the forms of an unrelated mediator who, if the two parties cannot come to an agreement on their own, has to judge whether the offered reparation measures up to the gravity of the insult. But in general, organizations like the SGC do not exist and the Æsir equivalent of your government certainly does not get involved in personal matters."

With a thoughtful frown, Tony mulls that over. Under that aspect, Midgard probably seems very complicated to Loki; Tony understands better now why Loki sometimes seems to be bemused and amused by the things they have to do or that Tony tells him. "You know, it probably doesn't seem like it, but in the end that makes things easier for everyone involved. The branch of the government that deals with legal issues, I mean. That way there is always a neutral third party available; any offenses or grievances anybody has are brought up to them and neutrally judged."

Shrugging again, Loki looks back over the city. "Midgard seems satisfied with this arrangement, but on Asgard, people would be insulted. They are no children who are incapable of dealing with a dispute on their own."

Okay. "I don't really know what to say to that." Tony frowns. "Does this seem childish to you?"

"Not childish," Loki denies. "And we already had this discussion, had we not? I see now that this is important, and I even agree, to a point, that it's necessary. I'm willing to cooperate with whatever you need for me to do." He shrugs. "Some things just seem a little... pernickety to me."

Tony tilts his head and mulls that over for a moment. Sure, he sees where Loki is coming from and he agrees with his point of view – with the way his society handles things. To a point, at least. People on Midgard are far too eager to stick their noses in other people's business and sometimes it's fun to fuck with them, but Tony would certainly have had a far easier time if that weren't the case. Sure, he enjoys the attention and by this point it's impossible to imagine what sort of person he would be if his private life had actually been private – his reputation would certainly be different.

It's pointless to speculate anyhow; their privacy is as protected as is possible with freedom of the press being a thing. Though Tony is curious. "How are things like, on Asgard? I mean, people have got to gossip. What would they say about us?"

Loki's mouth twists and he looks away, back over the city, but not without tucking his fingers into Tony's waistband, touching skin. "Look, they would say, here is proof that Loki truly is a weakling. No true warrior would depend on another like that. I always knew there was something wrong with him. Well, at least we can be sure he won't ascend to the throne now." He frowns briefly. "They'll say that only if they don't know yet I'm adopted."

Tony grimaces. Loki had told him that story very early on, how he found out that he's adopted. Still Tony doesn't know how to react; he has no frame of reference whatsoever. He never really belabored under the illusion that his parents cared for him, so he doesn't know what it's like to have that taken away from him. Of course he sympathizes, the pain Loki feels is obvious even if Tony didn't have his Guide abilities as an advantage, but there is little Tony can do to help him with it. "Sounds to me like Asgard is full of assholes."

Startled, Loki laughs and glances at him. "Very accurate, dearest." He pulls Tony in for a brief kiss. "Worry not. I have long since stopped wanting for their approval. I much prefer demonstrating to them just how capable I am, despite the many ways they consider me lacking. Little else incenses them as much."

A broad grin spreads on Tony's face. "Ditto. That's pretty much exactly what I've been doing. The public opinion here turns like the tide; one day they love you, the next day they're ready to excommunicate you. It's better to distance yourself from that and just do your own thing, and do it so well that even your critics cannot find fault with it."

Loki smiles. "Yes. Exactly." He keeps Tony close to his body, presses a kiss to his temple and breathes out. "It matters not what Asgard says anyhow, as I have no intention of ever going back."

That does surprise Tony. "Okay? Not even to get your things or something?"

His Sentinel just shakes his head. "There is nothing for me there."

That's... sort of a huge deal. For a Sentinel, territory means everything. For Loki to forfeit his so easily... but really, considering the circumstances, "easy" really doesn't apply. Tony doesn't know all the details but he knows that Loki tried to kill himself before he landed here, so hearing that he doesn't plan to ever go back to his territory is maybe more surprising than it should be.

Anyhow, Tony won't make a big deal out of it. Maybe Loki's territory is somewhere else anyway and he's making assumptions here. That other realm he took Tony to that one time certainly seemed like it was Loki's territory as well, so maybe Loki has several territories. It's not unusual at all; most Sentinels have at least two areas of territory, their home and their workplace, even the route between either to a point. It stands to reason that Loki could have more territories like that, having had much more time and opportunity to establish himself. Now Tony is terribly curious to find out where Loki would call home.

He doesn't ask, though, instead nods and rubs his cheek against Loki's shoulder. "Wanna go make some dinner?"

Loki looks at the darkening sky for a moment before nodding and letting go of Tony.

Later, they lie in bed, hair wet from the shower. They would've been asleep already – sex often has them napping afterwards – but the shower woke them up again, and then Tony remembers something. "Let's look at that report the behavioral analysts wrote."

Seeming surprisingly ambivalent about it, Loki shrugs but rolls until he's lying half on top of Tony, peeking over his shoulder while Tony, lying on his belly, flicks through his tablet to get to the report in his inbox. He skims through the boring bits and focuses on the analysis of the herd test.

The analysis is separated into three areas; Tony and Loki as individuals and them as a pair. The first part is an analysis of Loki and the way he behaved, noting that he assessed his herd the moment he was presented with it and immediately noticed that two members of it were missing without even having any indication that they had been there to begin with. They describe Loki as very alert, but more on the aloof end of the scale, though certainly not distanced or removed, as proven by the fact that he went to retrieve the children himself immediately when it became obvious that the mother he had sent out to do the job would not be immediately successful. This proved his ability to empathize and sympathize, even if they weren't as expressed. He clearly paid close attention to everything happening in the room and when necessary behaved nurturing, though while inherent, it appears not to be an integral part of his instincts. His control and self-control are excellent, extraordinary on a level seldom observed. As far as Tony can tell from the words and tone of the report, they're pretty smitten with Loki. Well, they ought to be, and that's Tony's objective opinion. Loki is the ideal Sentinel; protective but not overly so, attentive, alert, possessive, sexy... well, the last two need not concern anybody, but still. Tony pretty much hit jackpot.

He grins and nudges Loki's face with his head. "They love you."

Loki is skeptical. "They appear to find no fault in me, but this report is very objective and gives little judgment to begin with. Though what there is," he grants when Tony pouts, "is positive."

"Damn straight, because you're awesome," Tony nods with satisfaction.

At first Loki seems surprised, then pleased, if amused. "I think you are a little biased."

"Well, yeah," Tony agrees, because he's probably pretty much the definition of biased where Loki is concerned, "but that doesn't mean I'm wrong."

Loki smiles, Tony feels it against the skin of his naked shoulder, but doesn't reply, chooses to instead kiss the back of Tony's neck while one possessive hand slides down Tony's flank. "I want to read what they think of you," Loki murmurs warmly against Tony's spine.

"Whuh? Er, yeah, sure." Tony blinks and focuses on the tablet again, though he's starting to think he'd rather do something else then this. Come on, Loki is lying almost on top of him, they could do way better things with that than read.

But if Loki wants to read it, that's fine.

Tony skims through the report, seeing pretty much what he would have expected, though every time he reads the words "nurturing" he wants to cringe. The overall content of the report agrees that Tony is more nurturing, less alert and more attentive. He's aware of his surroundings and the general mood of the herd, quickly pinpointing a member that was in distress and immediately coming to their aid. The highlights are that he helped the mother with the baby and the crying teenager, and they commend his self-control as well in light of Carey's entirely unexpected presence as a Guide, especially considering that she touched Loki. Seeing it written like that irks Tony somehow, though he couldn't really say why. Maybe it's because they're writing about him like he's a test subject and not a person, though they did it with Loki too and he wasn't bothered then.

"They seem to approve of you as well," Loki comments when he's done reading, nuzzling the side of Tony's head. "I wish to see the rest."

Right, the pair analysis. That Tony is more interested in, even if he isn't worried. He knows perfectly well that they're great together, he needs no behavioral analyst to tell him that.

They still do, because the last section of the assessment starts with how in sync they are, extraordinarily so, how great they work together and how they complement each other. While Loki oversees the herd as a whole Tony concentrates on the well-being of the individual, though they're both flexible and perfectly capable of switching if need be. Tony can't remember consciously doing that – paying attention to the group while Loki was focused on a single person, but if they saw it, he's not going to disagree. Especially since it seems to be another point in their favor.

The part that makes Tony a little uncomfortable is the analysis of how they interact with each other: they use the words "caring" and "loving" a lot, and while Tony wouldn't protest he still doesn't like that people looked at them so closely. Other than that, they're apparently very in tune with one another, attentive to each other and their needs but at the same time perfectly capable of separating as well and performing their individual duties. They reacted well in the face of adversity – both when the woman accidentally touched Tony and when that guy in the lobby approached Tony. The mention of that stumps him for a moment; he wouldn't have expected that. For a moment he even wonders whether they orchestrated the whole thing, but no, they wouldn't do that. The Center employs a lot of Guides and Sentinels and none of them would condone such an action, using an unstable Sentinel like that, purposefully putting him into a situation where he could inflict harm on another or (and) be harmed in return.

Loki seems to follow the same thoughts as Tony, but he's apparently less trusting because he asks. "Do you think they arranged...?"

"No," Tony immediately disagrees, and it's the full truth. "If it were SHIELD, I'd definitely consider it. But the SGC, no. No Sentinel or Guide would allow something like this. It'd be cruel and we all have a lot of sympathy for those who lost their mind or life due to remaining unbonded. No. I don't believe they would do that."

"Okay." Accepting that, Loki settles down again. "It just occurred to me that that was awfully convenient, wasn't it, and they do mention it in the report."

"They probably reviewed security footage," Tony points out. "It was in public, after all." He shrugs, carefully so because Loki's chin is resting on his shoulder. "It was an opportunity for them, I suppose. Anyways they seem to think you did great there too. Which you did, just for the record."

"Noted," Loki says, a little amused. "Though I was already aware of your thoughts on the matter. You made very sure to inform me how much you approve."

That Tony did. The memory makes him smirk a little. Putting the tablet away, he turns around, scooting closer to Loki so he's forced to lift up to make room for Tony under him in the process. Once situated completely under his Sentinel, Tony smiles sweetly. "I approve of pretty much anything you do."

Loki snorts. "Not everything, certainly."

Well, no. "I didn't say everything anyway," Tony points out carelessly, already pulling Loki down into a kiss. "I'm just trying to say that I think I couldn't have gotten a better Sentinel than you."

Skeptical, Loki tilts his head. "Another – from this realm – would certainly have found you sooner."

"But you did find me, and anyways, as much as I wanted you there, I think I needed the time to make something of myself that isn't Guide," Tony replies, blinking a little at the sudden turn for the serious the conversation took. "You still could've come a couple of years earlier – though before Afghanistan I would probably have been pretty unbearable." On the other hand, much of his behavior stemmed from the fact that he was trying to fill the hole inside himself. Still, in a way Tony is glad that he had time to settle before he met Loki. Though he's aware that he can only say that now because he has Loki now. That he didn't go crazy doesn't mean that he didn't suffer.

"I cannot believe that I would ever find you unbearable," Loki murmurs, nuzzling down into Tony's neck and breathing in.

Tony is grinning while he tangles his fingers in Loki's hair. "Now who's biased?"

"I find the thought of you with another unbearable," Loki admits after a moment, non-sequitur. "It makes me want to destroy everything and I have no intention of ever letting you go, even if... even if it would be better for you. I am not strong enough for that. But you cannot deny that, were your Sentinel from this realm, you would have had far less difficulties."

"How so?" Tony asks, unimpressed. He really doesn't like where this is going.

"You cannot tell me you enjoyed having to tell your Sentinel everything about himself because he knew nothing," Loki says dryly.

"And I should be bothered by that why?" Tony demands. "I really don't want to hear you say that ever again. It's not your fault that you didn't know and it certainly didn't put me out or whatever. I don't care how much sooner a Sentinel from this realm would have found me, because I want you, and only you. Really, stop this. Stop it."

Loki draws in a breath, and then another. "I'm sorry," he says eventually. "I did not mean to imply you would-"

"That's great, because I don't," Tony interrupts. He has no idea what Loki meant to say but he doesn't care, it's not important, because Loki is _wrong_. "Why are we even talking about this?"

"Because sometimes my insecurities are louder than my mind," Loki admits. Tony would never have thought Loki would actually admit it, but then Loki goes even further when he adds, a little quietly, "Nobody has ever wanted me for me before. It was always for something I was or could do for them."

Ah. "Well, they're stupid," Tony says petulantly, tightening his hold on his Sentinel. "Also, I want you. And I'm keeping you and nobody gets to interfere, so it's their loss."

"Yes," Loki says, and it's somehow enough to mollify Tony. He sighs and nuzzles the side of Loki's head. When he suggests they sleep Loki only hums in agreement before settling on his side and pulling Tony close to his chest, both arms wrapped around him.

The next day some time after breakfast Tony sighs and tells himself firmly to quit stalling. "Loki?" he calls out. "I'm going to call Pepper."

There is a brief pause and then Loki appears in the doorway, making a good effort of keeping his expression neutral but the slight furrow in his brows gives him away. Not having expected any less, Tony pats the space next to him on the sofa and leans against his Sentinel once he's taken a seat. Then he tells JARVIS to call Pepper.

"Hello?" Pepper answers, even though she has to know very well who's calling.

"Hey Pep," Tony says. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, how are you and Loki? JARVIS told me you're coming out of conclusion?"

Tony grins. "Yep, as of yesterday. So I heard the SGC is suing you for contacting us, is that true?"

"Yes," she confirms with a sigh. "It's my own fault, I guess. I was just really surprised because I never expected- uh."

"I know," Tony agrees, because he hadn't either, not after all this time. He takes Loki's hand and looks at the way their fingers tangle. "I sort of want to offer to talk to them to drop the charges but I'm not sure if they would. It didn't really seem like we get to have any input in that."

"Probably not," Pepper confirms. "They're doing it on your behalf and you'll benefit from whatever comes out of it but while you were in seclusion the Center was your legal guardian, so to speak, so they're perfectly within rights. And they never drop charges like this because it's such a big deal."

Tony nods; he'd figured something like that. "I never really got it, but it really is. A big deal, I mean."

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "I didn't get it either but I still should have known better than to call you. Tell Loki I'm sorry too, please?"

Glancing at Loki, Tony nods. "Will do. So, tell me how my company is doing."

Apparently Tony's recent significant rise in media presence, as always, also caused a surge in all their sales figures, stocks included, but the board is still pissy because they're wondering how much, now that Tony has bonded, he'll keep up with his work. The mere suggestion that he'll stop makes Tony speechless with rage for a moment; what the hell do they think he is? The cliche homemaker type of Guide who just sits around and waits on his Sentinel? Nevermind that that's so mysterious a creature Tony has never met one, and neither has anybody he knows. And who the fuck do they think they are, trying to make decisions based on assumptions like that before anything has even happened? Pepper set them straight and it's not like they could've done anything anyway, but still. It's infuriating.

"I know," Pepper agrees. "I guess one of their issues is that Loki is such a huge unknown factor. It's like they think he's going to whisk you away to another planet and you'll never come back or something like that. It will probably take a couple of weeks before they get off that idea."

"They better," Tony grumbles, muttering under his breath about what assholes they are and he wishes he could just fire them all. Pissants.

But, he reminds himself while taking a deep breath, he won't have to deal with them personally anyway. He's still on probation so he won't have to talk to anyone he doesn't want to. He'll just check out his backlog and pick one of his inventions ready for mass production to send over to the company and the board will shut up.

"How are things, apart from that? Which reminds me, Pepper, do I have a PR person?"

Pepper sighs. "Yes, Tony. You also have a personal assistant now, I hired one. They're dealing with the publicity end of things, you know that I don't do that type of stuff anymore? You know, ever since you made me your CEO a year ago?"

"Yes, Pepper." Tony rolls his eyes. Then he blinks. "Wait, you hired me a personal assistant? Who?"

"As if you'd know him," Pepper returns. "His name is David Shelley and he's competent and efficient and you hired him about three weeks ago. Well, I hired him for you. Your _PR person_ – her name is Eleanor Palmer, by the way, she's been working for you for six years and been doing an excellent job, maybe you should try to remember her name – and David have been working together ever since then, mostly dealing with the press. They released a couple of statements on your behalf."

"Statements?" Tony frowns. "About what?"

"They're on your website, you can check it out, it's just general type stuff about how you're in seclusion and can people please try to respect that instead of being nosy assholes about it. I think you'll like the part where they subtly threaten everyone who doesn't mind their own business with the SGC, that was well executed." Pepper pauses. "You do know that the media has been insane ever since news got out?"

"Well, I figured," Tony says, "what with how the SGC told me they sued a bunch of people over me. Some websites and people?"

"A couple of white old men were on the news and internet saying stuff about how this is proof that homosexuality is animalistic and letting homosexual marriage be a thing would be the equivalent to letting people marry their dogs," Pepper informs him, her epic eye roll audible. "And other idiocy like that. It's not the majority, though."

"What is the majority?"

Pepper sighs. "Tony, this is why you have a personal assistant, you really should call David."

Frowning, Tony shakes his head. "You know we're still on probation, right? We literally came off seclusion yesterday."

There is a brief pause. "Is it difficult? Talking to me, I mean."

"A little bit, I guess," Tony has to admit with a grimace. "I mean, last week during the tests there was this woman who accidentally touched me, _that_ was difficult. This isn't really, in comparison, but, well, we used to- so it is, still, a little bit. Complicated."

"I get it," Pepper says, and while Tony highly doubts that she does he figures she at least understands. "And she _touched_ you? That's incredibly rude, I'm a little stunned, I mean _everybody_ knows not to do that."

Everybody also knows not to call a pair during seclusion but it's not like Tony himself really got the significance of it at the time so he probably shouldn't cast stones. "It was an accident, but still. Loki was brilliant though, he didn't even growl at her, just calmly told her to leave."

"Really?" Pepper sounds honestly impressed, which, she should be. Everybody should be. "That's huge. That was before you even came out of conclusion, wasn't it? Wow. His control must be outstanding. Right?"

"Yes," Tony confirms. Pepper, like most mundanes, only knows hearsay; gossiping about Sentinels and Guides has always been something of an issue. Generally Sentinels, Guides and those closest to them keep things in the community, mostly because mundanes have such a hard time understanding some things. Tony couldn't possibly count the number of times somebody made a comment about unbonded Guides and Sentinels just making a big deal about "a little heartbreak" or something to that effect, and that's despite the vast amount of information and scientific study is out there on the matter, proving that it's a lot more than that. "He was amazing."

"I'm really happy for you," Pepper says warmly, and Tony knows that she means it. "What was it like for you, though? Being touched, I mean," she asks after a moment.

"It didn't _really_ hurt," Tony relays after a moment, "it just, sort of hurt? I felt really uncomfortable afterwards and like I _really_ needed a shower. I mean she just brushed my hand but I've heard of- I don't even want to imagine what it must be like to be touched more than that by anybody else." The mere thought makes him shudder. Then he remembers something that's fortunately distracting. "Kids are fine though, there was this baby and that didn't bother me at all. Well, I guess it would've been weird if it had, what with it being a baby and all."

"It wouldn't have been weird at all," Pepper disagrees. "It's not just about the touching itself, it's about smelling of somebody else, right?"

Tony blinks. "That's right, yeah. Did you do some reading?"

"I figured I should, after my faux-pas," Pepper confirms, sounding a little embarrassed. "So I take it you won't come out in public anytime soon? Physically, I mean."

"Hah, public," Tony snorts. "Apparently the media is in a tizzy over us or something, I won't be going in public with Loki anywhere."

Pepper huffs. "They are, it's ridiculous. I mean it's not even like they can say anything about you but they still have paparazzi everywhere, be aware anytime you go somewhere that's not yours or the SGC, it will only be a matter of time til somebody takes a picture of you and finds a place greedy enough to publish it despite the lawsuit they'll get for it. On that note, if I can make a suggestion? Don't go anywhere physically until you're sure you can handle SHIELD because they really, really want to talk to Loki and I doubt they'll stay away from you a second longer the moment they get a chance to argue you're not in seclusion anymore."

Frowning, Tony looks at Loki, who raises an eyebrow at him. "What does SHIELD want from him?"

"...I don't think you understand the mess everything is in right now," Pepper says after a moment. "I mean, Loki is an alien, and everybody knows it. I don't know how it leaked but somebody in SHIELD did it, that much is sure. In any case, you bonded with a Sentinel who is an alien. The whole SGC is upset because this means there must be more Sentinels and Guides out there, really _out there_ , but nobody knows where Loki is from and how he came here and what he wants here, except for SHIELD who know that the first time Loki came into contact with this planet that they know of for sure he used some robot thing to destroy a couple of houses, and the second time he injured a lot of agents until they captured him. I'm not casting any blame here, I don't know the situation and frankly I'm on your side either way, but it's a _mess_. Several branches of the government are freaking out, FBI, NSA, they're all very curious and want to talk to Loki. And if that weren't enough already, the public knows about it. If it had been kept secret they could have taken their time, they could have decided whether Loki was a risk or not and they could basically have done whatever they wanted because Loki has no legal citizen status anywhere and it's not like anybody would have believed you or anyone anyway if someone had complained. But this way they have no choice but to allow Loki to stay here, no matter how freaked out they are. I don't mean to scare you, Tony, and I don't think you're in any danger, either of you. But the moment you're ready for public interaction again? You have to be _really_ ready. I'd suggest you – when you're ready – talk to SHIELD first and then you have to do several things at the same time: show yourself in and talk to the public and let all the other people who want to talk to you and or Loki talk to you. And by "talk to the public" I mean make them like Loki, which probably won't be too hard, right now everyone is enamored with the romance, but you should still talk to Eleanor and devise a strategy. That's what I mean when I say you have to be _really_ ready."

Tony swallows, staring at Loki who is looking back at him calmly. The mere thought of Loki being in danger from their own people scares him. "Okay," he says belatedly, voice hoarse.

Immediately Pepper's voice softens. "I didn't mean to scare you, Tony, I'm just... trying to look out for you both. As I said, I'm on your side anyway, but you should be prepared."

"Right now I'm thinking it was a mistake moving on from seclusion," Tony says dryly, "but you know me. I'm always prepared."

She snorts. "You're really not, but on the other hand, you've done some of your best stuff when you improvised, so that's neither here nor there. In any case... take it slow. Make very sure."

"Yeah, will do." Tony takes a breath. "Thanks."

"No problem. You're important to me, and I don't know Loki yet but he's important to you so he's important to me too. I just wanted you to know that." She takes a breath. "Want me to talk to David or Eleanor for you, get a proper summary of what's happening?"

Tony has to clear his throat before he can reply. "Yes, please. Thank you."

"Wow, so polite," she teases gently. "I'll do that. Want me to call you tomorrow or the day after?"

"Tomorrow is good. And Pepper... you're important to me too." Tony glances at Loki while he says it but Loki looks calm. Good.

Her smile is audible. "Thanks. Talk to you tomorrow then, okay?"

She hangs up, and Tony frowns down at his lap, only looking up when Loki stirs. "She's part of your... pack," Loki says, only slightly unfamiliar with the word. He's read a lot of info on Sentinels and Guides and how they and their abilities integrate into society and he's smart as a whip, but it's still a whole different, strange new world to him.

Tony nods. "Yeah. The, uh, sex, that was relatively new. We've been friends for years – or maybe I should say she's been looking out for me for years. We're both workaholics, so she doesn't have many people either."

Not commenting on that, Loki just nods thoughtfully.

The silence stretches between them. Recalling the situation Pepper had described to him, Tony licks his lips nervously. He's actually surprised that they respected seclusion, apart from Fury that is, but if people really want to talk to Loki that urgently... it's probably, like Pepper said, only due to the fact that the public was aware. There is no way anyone can do something to either of them with the media so focused on them. They really will have to devise a strategy, though.

"What is it?" Loki asks, thumb sliding along Tony's lower lip as he leans in to look at him seriously.

Tony exhales. "I'm just worried, is all. Pepper is right – It was stupid of me not to realize. We need to make sure nobody considers you a threat and that, if it happens anyway, they can't do anything to us because the public like us too much. I just... it really sucks, I feel really bad that the situation is like that, here."

Looking very unconcerned, Loki shrugs. "People fear the unknown almost as much as they fear the unexpected. If the two come together, they can commit inconceivable atrocities. It's the same in every society. I'm not surprised." He hesitates. "Though I'm sorry that..."

"If you're going to apologize for the mess, don't," Tony interrupts. "I really don't want to hear something like that."

Irritated, Loki shrugs again. "Nevertheless, I feel it. You would not have to deal with this if-"

"If people weren't such reactionary assholes," Tony interrupts again. "Seriously, don't. Don't ever apologize for being in my life."

"That's not what I'm apologizing for," Loki protests with a scowl. "I'm not even apologizing at all." Seeing Tony's mulish expression, he huffs. "Fine."

Tony narrows his eyes. "Fine." Crossing his arms, he sits stiffly for a moment, annoyed with everything, before he sighs. In the end it's not Loki's fault and it's not he Tony is really irritated with either, though Tony really was serious when he said he doesn't want apologies from Loki, not for that nor for anything else. Letting his body tilt sideways he leans into his Sentinel and sighs again. "I guess I just thought we could get started now, but there's just more bureaucracy and things to worry about." Get started with what, anyway? Their life? This is their life, like it or not, it already started. Coming out of seclusion, off probation feels like some sort of new beginning, but it isn't, really. Bonding is the new beginning – not even that, the new beginning is the moment they meet.

Loki shrugs, wrapping one arm around Tony's shoulders. "Such is life. It takes time to remove yourself as much as possible from bothersome things like that, and if you don't wish to invest time your only other choice is to leave the environment that's bothering you."

"You sound like you speak from experience," Tony murmurs, settling further into Loki.

"I am, of course," Loki readily agrees. "I am very old, from Midgard's perspective. I have secluded myself from society several times in my life."

Of course he would have. He's probably done everything Tony can think of twice, and it's hard in that moment not to feel stupid and like a child in comparison. Normally Tony isn't so aware of how different they really are, maybe because where it counts they aren't. Besides, when he came here Loki didn't know anything about Sentinels; he didn't seem like a guy who's seen a lot then, and not for the first time Tony wonders how it came that Loki never, not once met a Guide or another Sentinel who knew what they are and could tell him. He would have noticed, and they should have noticed. The only possible explanation is that Midgard is the only planet Loki has visited where people are actually aware of Sentinels and Guides and have them integrated as a normal part of society. It frankly is a scary thought and Tony isn't sure he wants to think about it, so he focuses on something else instead. "Did you go to the realm you took me to that one time?"

"Yes," Loki confirms. "Ever since I accidentally discovered it, several times. It's dangerous, but there is no truly sapient being living in the realm. It's... peaceful."

Tony remembers how worried Loki was about him touching the water and tries not to think about their probably very varying definitions of peaceful. "It's good that you have that," he murmurs, distracted because Loki is nuzzling into his neck, breath warm on his skin.

"I have you now," Loki says against his skin, nosing up to the back of Tony's ear. "I didn't know how peaceful the world could be until you."

That's both good and painful to hear; the thought of Loki living all his life in distress hurts, but at least it's over now. "I'm glad," he sighs, wrapping his arms around Loki and pulling him down as he sinks to his back. Loki fluidly goes along with the movement, somehow managing to both keep his nose in Tony's neck while at the same time arranging them so that he lies in the cradle of Tony's body, Tony's knees angled up and apart to make space for Loki between. They lie there like that for a while, one of Loki's hands having sneaked under Tony's shirt to lie warmly on the soft skin above his hip, Tony's hands on Loki's back where he's rubbing slow circles.

Tony is processing what Pepper just told them. It was rather naive of him not to expect that kind of trouble, but honestly, he had never much cared about how society would react towards aliens. Of course he had thought about first contact, he's a scifi kind of guy, but he'd been way more interested in the tech, trying to imagine impossible things that might be possible after all, in a hundred years. Never had he thought about what people would do – though he'd seen District 9 and honestly, it had seemed a rather realistic portrayal to him.

Meeting Loki, he hadn't even really thought about him. To him, Loki is just... Loki. His drop dead gorgeous, intelligent, sarcastic, protective, troubled Sentinel. The best thing to ever happen to Tony and sometimes he wonders what he did to deserve him because surely he doesn't, but he hates thinking like that, it implies some people deserve the crap things that happen to them and in Tony's experience, most people don't. Doesn't change the fact that Loki is gorgeous in every way and Tony, well, as a Guide he's pretty average, and as a person he's generally pretty sub-par. As a scientist he's brilliant, but there's only so far that will carry him, he's well-aware of that.

But in the end it doesn't matter either way, because he has Loki and he wouldn't ever give him up, maybe not even if Loki asked him to. That's just not the kind of person Tony is.

And while he is well-aware that Loki is an alien by some definition of the term – pretty much every definition, admittedly, what with the magic and being hundreds of years old and coming _from another planet_ – he never really thought about it in the terms almost everybody else seems to be thinking about it. To them, Loki is a potential threat but at the very least an unknown, potentially scary factor. They wonder where he comes from and what he wants and just how _alien_ he truly is, how he came here and what he's going to do now.

They're going to have to make people see that Loki is no threat, which shouldn't be too difficult, if what Pepper said about the general public opinion is true. They'll have to do a couple of interviews, let people see Loki's face – and let's face it, with those cheekbones people will have a hard time arguing that Loki is evil; it's not fair but it's a fact that beautiful people have it easier in some ways and Tony fully intends to make use of that. There will also be some interviews with a bunch of three letter government agencies, which should be okay too.

If the thing with SHIELD goes well. Tony should check in with Fisher, but it's only been a day, there wouldn't be much, if any progress and if there had been- no, she wouldn't have called him, but she might have told JARVIS who would tell Tony.

If SHIELD gives Loki the green light, the other agencies will have to back off too. They'll still want to vet him just to say they did – god beware anybody get the impression they actually trust the other agencies – but it won't be much of an issue. Hopefully.

Besides, Loki has the Stark name behind him, so there's that. It won't be a big deal. It will be annoying and probably stressful too, but it will happen at their own pace. They're still on probation, there is nothing anybody can do about it legally and they'll think thrice about doing anything illegally, not with how interested the public is in them.

"We'll be fine," Tony murmurs, brushing a kiss against Loki's temple.

"Of course we will," Loki says, sounding surprised. He leans back a little to look Tony in the eyes. "Was there ever a question otherwise?"

"No, just..." Helplessly, Tony shrugs. "Things will be stressful. They won't leave us in peace yet."

"Unlikely, but we can deal with that when the time comes," Loki points out. Then he smiles, a surprisingly sweet thing. "Besides, I told you that until you, I didn't know true peace. No matter what happens, we will come out on top. With you by my side, nobody can harm me, and with me by your side, nobody will dare harm you."

Tony exhales slowly and nods. "I have a feeling you weren't always this optimistic."

"Of course not. But I have thought a lot about my life and how it has changed now that you're in it, and I have decided that it matters not, so long as you _are_ in it." Loki shrugs. "I cannot speak of the far future, but for now, I am content to remain here with you."

Tony blinks at him and licks his lips. That's... that's _huge_ , considering how insistent Loki had been at the beginning that he wouldn't stay here, that he didn't even want for Tony to stay here. "Okay," he says a little breathlessly, a wild smile spreading on his cheeks. "That's... awesome." With a laugh he pulls Loki close, pressing a kiss to his lips before pulling away just slightly and whispering against them, "I'm really happy."

He feels more than sees Loki's smile, too close to his face to see more than the way the corners of his mouth crinkle, but his lips stretch under Tony's. "Me too."

Tony grins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three decades later... my sincerest apologies about taking so long.


End file.
